Health Care BS

The Washington Times reports that Nancy-Ann DeParle, who stepped in as director of the White House Office of Health Care Reform when Daschle the Dodger was forced out due to his failure to pay his taxes, has some rather dubious connections to the “health care industrial complex.” Specifically, she’s made millions from a variety of frequently-investigated medical companies.

Nancy-Ann DeParle, one of President Obama’s chief advocates for the health care reform bill wending its way through Congress, earned more than $6.6 million as a paid director for health care firms, some of which were targeted in government investigations or whistleblower lawsuits on suspicions of billing fraud and other legal problems.

That’s right. Billing fraud:

Five of the companies faced allegations ranging from overcharging Medicare to failing to warn patients of the dangers of their products, according to a study by the Investigative Reporting Workshop at American University and a review by The Washington Times of U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) records and Mrs. DeParle’s financial disclosure statement.

Ironically, as President Clinton’s director of the Health Care Financing Administration (the predecessor to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services), she was the architect of that agency’s initiative to eliminate fraud and abuse. A cynic might say that her dubious associations with frequently-investigated firms rendered her uniquely qualified to put together such a program. They say it takes a thief … well … you get the point.