Chartered’s Crappy Record
Yesterday, District officials put a number—$4 million— to the so-called "financial irregularities" occurring at Chartered Health Plan, the Medicaid managed care organization that the city recently seized from alleged shadow campaign financier Jeff Thompson.
Chartered's books can't account for $3 million in revenue and $1 million in expenses. Specific details about where this money came and went are still unavailable to the public. But what is clear is that under Thompson's control, Chartered Health Plan was a complete mess. The company lost $15 million last year.
"It's upside down," says Insurance Commissioner William White.
This is not the first time that Chartered's financial dealings have come under intense scrutiny since Thompson took over the company more than a decade ago. In 2004, the Washington Times found that despite being given an extra $2 million in 2002 to operate a health clinic on Minnesota Avenue 24/7, Chartered never did. After the story prompted an outcry, Chartered returned the funds.
"I'm tired of the blank checks of this government," former Councilmember Carol Schwartz said at a council hearing addressing the funds at the time.
But apparently the city government didn't share that sentiment. A few years later, an outside auditor looked over Chartered's books and found a number of problems. They include:
- Chartered was spending $12.2 million of its funds on other-Thompson owned companies, of which $7.6 million was dubbed questionable.
- A Thompson-owned clinic was charging more than double the highest rates paid to other clinics for the same services.
- A Thompson-owned transportation company was charging Chartered $5.35 per month for each of its clients. A non-Thompson-owned transportation firm was charging $1.70.
- Thompson paid himself $364,716 in 2005 for "management and consulting" fees. He said he averaged more than 40 hours a week working for Chartered even though he was also operating a major accounting firm at the same time.
- Chartered paid that accounting firm $870,000 in 2005, though there were no detailed records justifying the expense.
The audit led the District to file a lawsuit against Chartered. The company quickly settled for $12 million without admitting any guilt and continued to win city contracts totaling more than $300 million a year. And while we'll never know for sure, a Thompson-owned Chartered might have continued to do so for many years to come were it nor for a man named Sulaimon Brown.
Illustration by Jandos Rothstein.
9:40 pm
Fun story.
But don't blame (or credit, whatever) Sulaimon, blame (or credit, whatever) the people who hired him.
11:12 pm
Just can't leave it alone, huh Drez?
What about the administration which brought JThomp in originally? All of the people who gladly accepted his financial support?
Poor Sulaimon Brown is no more than a small potatoes Frank Wills nightmare. Though I must say the SB nightmare does have longer tentacles which reach back many more years than those of Watergate. The handwriting was on the wall when JThomp started unloading by liquidating his assets. Those hundreds of millions were not his bounty to keep. That money was spread so thin it left him in z big lurch just when he really needed it.
He'll probably never do a day in jail because of his connections.
Brown 'will never do lunch in this town again,' if he ever could. Howard Brooks is the real scoundrel here, however. And let's not forget his sidekicks Lorraine Green and Reuben Charles who have gotten out of Dodge on a Machem Lines stagecoach.
I'd be willing to bet SB wishes he had kept his narrow ass in the weeds and asked for any job he could get after being put in a position he was no more qualified for than my 14 year old grand daughter. At least she knows what a spread sheet is and uses Excel to keep up with her little bake sale business.
Let it go Drez. Even if Machem does come up with something it will only be a drop in the bucket compared to what was put into place long before SB and any other more recent candidates ran for office.
Hell, the Jim Graham, David Catania peep show proved more interesting than some shadow campaign starring Jeannie Clarke Harris & Company. The Gandhi mess also. But none of that crew will do a day behind bars.
This miasma didn't just crop up with the Gray campaign.
What I want to know is where all of those hundreds of millions of dollars went over the last 10 years or so.
5:36 pm
At the end of the day, Gray hired Brooke's, Charles. Green an, yes, Brown.
And they all had a nice little $650,000 illegal primary campaign.
It was fun while it lasted, I'm sure.
5:56 pm
But what about the 'beginning of the day' that made the 'end of the day' possible? How can you keep trying to blame Gray for this Thompson MESS? That's like trying to blame Obama for the MESS he inherited when he came into office.
And Yes, as Truman said, we all know where the buck stops; but the buck had to have started someplace. Each of those leaders is ultimately responsible for what happened in their campaigns and in their administrations. Needless to say: It goes with the territory.
You can place poor delegation of duties on their plates also. Especially our current Mayor Gray whose campaign SB stumbled into. Vince Gray does not appear to be a man who suffers fools knowlingly. So to contantly harp on his hiring mistakes is not looking at the root cause.
THAT ROOT CAUSE IS WHAT NEEDS TO BE EXAMINED TO MAKE SURE IT NEVER HAPPENS AGAIN. BUT THAT WON'T BE THE CASE, WILL IT? THE LOVE OF THAT ROOT CAUSE IS THE BANE OF OUR ENTIRE POLITICAL SYSTEM, ISN'T IT?????? I THINK IT'S CALLED M-O-N-E-Y.
8:01 pm
City Paper should solicit some comments from former Chartered patients. Thompson made his $$$ by delivering third-rate care for the poorest and most vulnerable patients in the District.
10:54 pm
@nurseinDC, Sad but true! This exercise in futility appears to be more about finding dirt on certain individuals rather than correcting the decades of incompetency by the fools which have run the DC government.
9:09 pm
Wake me when the Feds open an investigation and bring charges on your so called "beginning of the day".
'Till then, there's no there there.
9:12 pm
Oh, and SB didn't "stumble" anywhere.
He actively courted the Fenty folks and they correctly shut him down and out.
Any competent person could have spotted him as poison from a mile away.
Got along fine in the Gray campaign, though.
3:48 am
Earth to Drez: If you think the Feds are not investigating the 'beginning of the day', you're deliusional or maybe you still have your head stuck in the sand like an ostrich.
Common sense would tell even the most tunnel vision challenged that SB discussed EV-ER-Y-BODY with the Feds. They roll like that. He didn't come up with his 'any color', but Fenty line because they 'shut him down and out'.
hy would he have approached Fenty, Gray, or any other candidate with his laughable campaign rhetoric? Why would anybody need an SB to help them win an election?
Give it a goddamn rest Drez. You seem to be the only one hanging out on that bash Gray limb right about now; and you sound even more ridiculous than you did earlier in this game.
By the way, have you done your research on the past Fenty/SB connection? If you're in that loop, check it out. If not, you betta ask sumbody.
3:58 am
Hint to Drez: WHAT???? You don't you remember your boy LL broadcasting that SB had previously worked for JThomp who made a $100 donation to his campaign?
3:03 pm
SULAIMON BROWN IS THE MAN.....ALL Y'ALL BETTER RECOGNIZE.PRESENTLY THE MOST POWERFUL MAN IN DC POLITICS.
5:46 pm
HIVnurse. City papar should solicit some comments from former empoyees that chartered RIF'ed last year. Also look into the care that was not provided to the 1000's on the roll at chartered who was diagnosed with HIV and was allowed to fall through the cracks. Nurse managers were let go right at the time they were to recieve bonuses for services provided. This company need to pay this money back so the people it served can be medically compensated for the disservice they endured.
7:34 pm
City Paper readers, I would appreciate some enlightenment. What the heck does the DC Department of Health do? I've worked in this city for thirty years. I've never seen the DOH close down or even cite blatantly fraudulent operations like those that Gregory Wilson describes in his comment above.
Where is the outrage that the poorest D.C. HIV patients receive substandard care from Chartered so that Jeff Thompson can pad his bank account? And where is regulation from the DOH?
8:59 pm
LL #11: SB HAS NEVER (AND NEVER WILL BE) THE 'MAN'. HE WAS THE PETULANT MANCHILD WHO WILL GO DOWN IN HISTORY AS THE FRANK WILLS OF DC POLITICS. AND THAT IS AN INSULT TO MR. wILLS' MEMORY.
At least Frank Wills was doing his job and by doing such, toppled the Nixon Administration sending the Top Cop and all of his cohorts to jail. Mr. Wills knew his place and never claimed to be more than he was. He was not attempting to vent his frustrations on people who tried to help him. He was collateral damage. SB is a blowhard (no pun intended) who lied on his resumes over and over again. He was an asshole then, and he is an asshole now.
By no means am I excusing the way Howard Brooks (another asshole) and maybe Lorraine Green, attempted to use SB for their own nefarious purposes. However, that being said, SB couldn't get a job in a flop house and keep it. The couple of checks he may have gotten from DHCF were probably the largest pay checks in his work history and may have totaled more than all of them.
A real man would have been grateful for those few checks considering his lack of skills, and moved on to a job more suitable to his level of experience. Maybe 'loose lips' #11 should hire him. The two of you seem like two peas in a pod.
12:56 am
Earth to Drez Part 2...SB actually worked for your boy Fenty as a member of his campaign staff in 2005 and 2006! This is where the animosity between the two first began...
9:23 am
Thank you FentyRoadDog. Now how about Part 3. Give it to em in installments. Drag it out like the melodramatic series it really is. They probably couldn't take it all at once.