Race to replace Senator Stolle heats up

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. - The race to fill Ken Stolle's State Senate seat in Virginia Beach is heating up just days before voters select their GOP candidate to run in January's special election. The GOP candidate will be chosen this Saturday.  Rosemary Wilson, a Beach councilwoman, told WAVY.com her opponent, Jeff McWaters, a well-known local business leader is not trustworthy.

Wilson pointed to a health care fraud lawsuit , in which the federal government and the state of Illinois were plaintiffs against the health insurance company McWaters founded in Virginia Beach, Amerigroup Corporation.   Court documents show an associate Vice President of Government Relations for Amerigroup blew the whistle on McWaters' company and testified that Amerigroup "cherry-picked" the healthiest patients to reduce company costs and turned away pregnant women who should have been covered.

The case was settled two years ago and the U.S. Attorney's office involved in the prosecution of McWaters' company issued a statement in 2007 titled, "U.S. Judge raises total damages to more than $334 million against Amerigroup HMO in pregnancy discrimination case."  The release stated, "A federal jury found Amerigroup liable for systematic and extensive fraud in the Medicaid program...Amerigroup illegally avoided pregnant women and other people with expensive health conditions while continuing to receive state and federal dollars... The result of Amerigroup's discrimination was that the federal and state governments overpaid Amerigroup by millions of dollars."

Wilson told WAVY.com on Tuesday that voters needed to be aware of the lawsuit.  "Over 18,000 low-income pregnant women and individuals labeled "unhealthies" were denied health care, even after McWaters received medicaid funding."   Wilson said when it concerns someone "in a position of leadership dealing with billions of dollars of government money from the state of Virginia, can you trust this person?"

McWaters, who is campaigning as a successful business leader, told WAVY.com this is not an issue the voters care about.  "We are trying to run a positive campaign focused on jobs, focused on the cost of government and focused on transportation."  McWaters said, "This is old news. The company has moved on from that."

In court, federal prosecutors presented company emails from Amerigroup managers including one that reads :

"We have a big problem on our hands.  In September we had 19 third trimester members. We need to come up with a strategy to curtail this."

The email was not from McWaters and he told WAVY.com he did not know about the email and he was not in court to see it presented as evidence.

Another email from an Amerigroup manager stated:

"We have trained the marketing staff constantly to not even approach a pregnant female about joining the plan."

Again, McWaters denied knowing anything about the email, even though it was presented as evidence in the federal case against the company he founded and served as CEO.  "I just wasn't involved at that level," said McWaters. When asked if he agrees with the phrase, "The buck stops here," McWaters responded, "Yeah and I've taken full responsibility for it."

The judge on the case, U.S. District Judge Harry D. Leinenweber, said the company's actions were "egregious and calculated" and "constituted a several years long, institution-wide goal to fleece people's pockets at the expense of the government, the Medicaid system and the pregnant women."

McWaters told WAVY.com, "These low income women were already on Medicaid health care, they had full insurance. These were ladies in their third trimester that the state of Illinois said, 'Since they're in their third trimester, lets not have them change their insurance.' That was a request from the state."

McWaters, stepped down from his CEO post at Amerigroup after the government's lawsuit and says he no longer has any connection at all with his former company.  He also blasted Wilson claiming she is running a negative campaign.

Saturday voters will chose the republican candidate who will run in the special election in January to fill Ken Stolle's State Senate seat, as Stolle takes over as Sheriff in Virginia Beach.

Related Links:

Jeff McWaters for Senate

Mary Wilson for Senate