Sunday, January 31, 2010

White House March of the For-Profits


In prior posts I noted Nancy-Ann DeParle's for-profit health care background. The White House Health Czar was a private equity underwriter (PEU) for CCMP Capital Advisers when President Obama tapped her to lead health care reform.

As The White House revealed 75,000 visitor names, I did a little For-Profiteer fishing. Here's what I found:

Tom Scully visited 10-10-09. Mr. Scully is general partner with Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe, a PEU with a distinctive health care focus. Scully also lobbies for health care clients for Alston & Bird, a DC firm that employed Tom Daschle, Bob Dole and numerous White House visitors.

James Shelton visited 10-21-09. Shelton is the former CEO of Triad Hospitals, which had Nancy-Ann Deparle and Uwe Reinhardt, a Princeton health economist, on their board. All made millions from Triad's sale. Nancy-Ann & Uwe also served together on Boston Scientific's board. Shelton is now head of Legacy Health Partners, an affiliate of CCMP Capital Advisers (Nancy's old PEU).

Jack Bovender visited 9-22-09. Bovender is the former Chair and CEO of HCA, an affiliate of KKR, a huge PEU. HCA will pay $1.75 billion in special dividends to its PEU owners. Part of the dividend is debt financed.

Daniel Moen visited 9-23-09. Moen is the CEO of CCMP owned Legacy Hospital Partners.

Robert Bracken visited 9-23-09. His father is Richard M. Bracken, the man who replaced Bovender as HCA's CEO. Did Tulane clean up Robert nicely for a White House visit?

Charles Kahn visited 3-06-09 Chip is CEO of the Federation of American Hospitals, the for-profit hospital lobby. He succeeded in renaming nonprofit community hospitals. The last Senate bill called them "private tax-exempt facilities," enough to chill the heart out of health care.

David Bernd visited 4-03-09 . Bernd served as CEO of Sentara Healthcare, a private tax exempt system in Tidewater, Virginia. He sits on the board of Legacy Health Partners and Old Point Financial Corporation.

Funny, none of Nancy's friends visited her. They spent time with Ezekiel Emanuel or took day long White House tours. Knowing this crowd, they had to be private tours. Who was their escort?

The parties could meet again at the Federation's upcoming Public Policy Conference and Business Expo. As the meeting is in downtown D.C., Nancy-Ann could swing by and see her friends without any White House record. It's been done before.