Richard L. Scott, a businessman who lives in Naples, has thrown his hat into the ring for the Republican's gubernatorial nomination against Attorney General Bill McCollum and state Sen. Paula Dockery. Don't know anything about him? Here's some fun facts:
- He hates President Obama's health care reform so much that he started a group, Conservatives for Patients' Rights, to campaign against it and poured millions of his own dollars into it.
- Probably not coincidentally at all Scott was once the CEO of the largest private operator of health care facilities in the US, Hospital Corporation of America.
- He was ousted from that position by the board of directors when the company was under investigation for one of the biggest Medicare and Medicaid fraud cases in history.
- HCA ended up having to pay more than $1.7 billion in fines and settlements for the fraud that occurred while Scott was CEO.
- Though he was never personally charged with anything, but that never seemed to be a high priority of prosecutors.
- After HCA, he started Solantic, another health care company, that has faced several discrimination lawsuits because Scott issued suggestions that the company only hire young, fit and "mainstream" employees without accents.
- He was an ownership partner along with George W. Bush of the Texas Rangers.
