Richard Lynn Scott is an American politician who is the junior United States Senator from Florida since 2019. He was the 45th governor of Florida from 2011 to 2019. Scott is a graduate of the University of Missouri, Kansas City and of Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law. In 1987, he co-founded Columbia Hospital Corporation, which defrauded Medicare, Medicaid and other federal programs.
About Rick Scott in brief
Richard Lynn Scott is an American politician who is the junior United States Senator from Florida since 2019. He was the 45th governor of Florida from 2011 to 2019. Scott is a graduate of the University of Missouri, Kansas City and of Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law. In 1987, after serving in the United States Navy and becoming a law firm partner, he co-founded Columbia Hospital Corporation. In 1997, the company defrauded Medicare, Medicaid and other federal programs. The Department of Justice ultimately fined the company USD 1. 7 billion in what was at the time the largest health care fraud settlement in U.S. history. Scott never met his biological father, Gordon William Myers, who was described by Scott’s mother, Esther J. Scott, as an abusive alcoholic. In 1954, Esther married Orba George Scott Jr. , a truck driver. Orba adopted young Rick, who took his stepfather’s surname and became known as Richard Lynn Scott. Scott was raised in North Kansas City, Missouri, the second of five children. Scott attended college on the GI Bill, and he graduated from the University of Missouri–Kansas City with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration. He earned a Juris Doctor degree by working his way through Southern Methodist University. Scott became a venture capitalist and pursued other business interests. Scott ran for governor in 2010, defeating Bill McCollum in a vigorously contested Republican primary election, and then narrowly defeated Democratic nominee Alex Sink in the general election. In 2014, Scott was re-elected in 2014, defeating former governor Charlie Crist.
In 2018, Scott won the 2018 Florida Senate election, defeating Democratic incumbent Bill Nelson. The initial election results were so close that they triggered a mandatory recount; Scott had won by 10,033 votes; Nelson then conceded the race. Scott took office following the expiration of his term as governor on January 8, 2019. In April 1987, Scott made his first attempt to buy the Hospital Corporation of America. In 1992, Columbia made a stock purchase of Basic American Medical, which owned eight hospitals, primarily in Southwestern Florida. In September 1993, Columbia did another stock purchase, of Galen Healthcare, which had been spun off by Humana Inc. At the time, Galen had approximately 90 hospitals, with Scott still running the combined company. Scott still had 82 percent of the stockholders of the combined firm. Scott formed the HCA Acquisition Company with two former executives of Republic Republic Health Corporation, Charles Miller and Richard Ragsdale, intending to assume an additional USD 1 billion in debt for a total of USD 5 billion in total. He then bought two struggling hospitals in El Paso for USD 60 million. In 1988, Scott and Richard Rainwater, a financier from Fort Worth, each put up USD 125,000 in working capital in their new company, Columbia Hospital Corp. The company later merged with another corporation to form ColumbiaHCA, which eventually became the largest private for-profit health care company in the US.
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