Columbia/HCA Exec Sentenced in Fraud Case

The first executive to be sentenced as a result of a nearly three-year federal fraud investigation into the nation’s largest hospital chain, Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corp., was ordered to spend two years in prison and was fined $7,500. Robert Whiteside also was ordered to pay restitution of $645,796, but repayment was delayed until a civil case is resolved. Whiteside was also placed on probation for three years. Whiteside and a colleague, Jay Jarrell, were convicted in July of conspiring to defraud and defrauding Medicare, Medicaid and CHAMPUS, tax-supported health programs for the disabled, elderly, poor and the military. Whiteside, 49, was a senior executive in reimbursement for Nashville, Tenn.-based Columbia/HCA. Jarrell, 44, was chief executive of the company’s southwest Florida division. Jarrell’s sentencing was postponed until Dec. 22.