Heres my most recent Agrade in PHIL301-1401B Ethics for Professionals, 144/150 = 96%, TITLE: IDENTIFYING THE ETHICAL ISSUES ABOUT FRAUD AND CORPORATE AMERICA CORRUPTION TITLE: Phase 4 Individual Project FROM: Bruce Anthony Long, #6064299 COURSE: PHIL301-1401B Ethics for Professionals TO: Instructor Siamak Pouraryan SCHOOL: Colorado Technical University Online DATE DUE: March 17, 2014 IDENTIFYING THE ETHICAL ISSUES ABOUT FRAUD AND CORPORATE AMERICA CORRUPTION Gary has a business he started with three guys who all became the founders of New Horizon, LLC and they had all agreed that Gary would own 50 percent of the company and the other two would each own 25 percent since Gary put up most of the startup capital to begin operations. The company had quite a few entities that represented the products that they would rent out. They had begun as a business that would supply tables and chairs for backyard parties and also rent inflatable jumping bags for children to play in. The third line of rentals would be to rent tents to cover the people in case it rained. They also they provided portable bathrooms, hand washing stations and waste holding tanks for trailers. The business caught on quickly and within 2 years the company had earned a profit that was over $300,000.00. They three investors decided it was now time to invest in dumpsters and they bought two brand new roll-off trucks. The dumpster business brought in more daily capital than all of the other small businesses together and the combined businesses could boast a $1 million annual sales total by the fifth year. Things were going well as can be until one of the partners, Kirk was bullying other trash and waste management companies by telling customers that the Tidy Bowl company was illegally hauling dangerous and toxic chemicals and leaving the waste on the side of the road in certain places. The Tidy Bowl company sued New Horizon, LLC for slander, libel and false and deceptive advertising. Under the Federal Sentencing Guidelines for Organizations (FSGO) companies that have compliance programs can reduce their penalty if someone there is convicted of fraud. The New Horizons LLC made up a new mission statement which was Have a ball when you rent party supplies from New Horizon, the company that cares. Rain or shine we deliver to your door what it takes to have a good time. The company is having a difficult time with keeping employees because they decided that they would not pay any overtime but would pay the bonuses of vacations to Mexico and outings to sporting events. People would stay for about 2 years and then quit for a more stable job with benefits and health insurance. The New Horizons board decided that they would create a code of ethics so that the employees could see what they would be getting out of working at the company. Fraud is when someone uses deceptive practices to increase their interest in an organization or to advance their position in a group. Accounting fraud is when a company presents inaccurate information and settles a lawsuit to gain more money than he or she deserves. Earlier in this course we discussed illegal acts by government officials such as bribery, corruption and fraud. Misappropriation of assets such as cash, inventory or intellectual property is also fraud and misconduct risks. The Code of Ethics was written to serve as a guide for the professional behavior of its staff who hold the delivery driving credentials. This code of ethical standards is created so that employees may strive to promote and maintain the highest standard of professional service and conduct among in the industry. Adherence to these standards assures public confidence in the integrity and service of all members of New Horizon, LLC. The code of ethics require employees of New Horizon, LLC to be void of participation in, condone, or be associated with dishonesty, fraud and abuse, or deception. The Code of Ethics would reward employees that were found to be honest and acted in an manner which brings honor to themselves, their peers and the profession. Employees must be willing to put service and the health and welfare of persons before self-interest, and conduct themselves in the practice of the profession so as to bring honor to themselves, their peers, and to the improvement of the communities they serve. Employees, managers and leaders must refuse to participate in or conceal unethical practices or procedures. Use only legal and ethical means in all professional dealings and shall refuse to cooperate with, or condone by silence, the actions of those who engage in fraudulent, deceptive or illegal acts. Marketing fraud is when someone is involved in creating, distributing, promoting, and pricing products. The public trust is destroyed when companies lie and mislead customers with marketing that is misleading. People work hard to earn their money and it is unethical to communicate false information in order to establish huge profits by advertising something that is not truly that valuable. New Horizon employees must respect the inherent dignity and worth of every person. No employee will be tolerated who deliberately uses efforts to obtain fraudulent payments from customers. All other fraudulent activities are business arrangements which violates referral law such as fee waivers for professional courtesy, and other discounts not uniformly applied, with the exception of business arrangements with a religious entity. We will be committed to performing New Horizon, LLC duties honorably, strengthen our professional membership and our representation of the profession to the public. We feel that the good conduct of our employees is important in developing leaders in our company and in the communities we serve. Accountants have a code of ethics that are strict so that they comply with the public interests and are able to deliver their clients information with no conflicts. Their code discusses the important concepts of integrity, independence, objectivity and due care. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act in 2002 was passed by Congress to address the many problems that American accounting firms had conflicts of interest such as providing both auditing and consulting services to the same service. The ruling also indicates that corporate board of directors must hire a director from outside of the directors financial knowledge of the companys audit committee. According to Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer of Hospital Corporation of America (HCA) leaders in ethical companies should possess “aspirations that are higher than observing the law”. HCA has encouraged Alan Yuspeh a Senior Vice President to inspire its employees to respond to difficult ethical situations by helping to support values that are consistently proven to work for successful leaders (Ferrell, 2012). An example of fraud in healthcare could be the 1997 case against Columbia/HCA. Jack Massey, Dr. Thomas Frist, Jr., and Dr. Thomas Frist, Sr. founded the Hospital Corporation of America firm that was to become one of the largest for-profit healthcare service companies in the United States. The firm was built on the theory that the more hospitals the company could buy, the fast the company would grow and the more revenue the firm could earn. In 1994 it merge with Columbia Hospital Corporation to become Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corporation. Richard Scott was a lawyer and the founder of Columbia and became the Columbia/HCA Healthcare. By 1997 Columbia/HCA was operating 343 hospitals, 126 outpatient surgery centers and had ancillary and outpatient services in the United Kingdom and Switzerland. Over 285,000 employees worked for Columbia/HCA. Rick Scott founded Columbia/HCA and was in the middle of and Federal Bureau of Investigation probe in the 1990s. Scott and other executives offered financial incentives to doctors in exchange for patient referral which is a violation of federal law. Thirty Whistleblowers including doctors, company employees and contractors filed lawsuits that exposed Scott to the Department of Justice. About $400 million in fines were charged to Rick Scott for up coding which is cheating on direct patient billing. Columbia/HCA employees where claiming that patients were a lot sicker than they really were. Scott admitted to wrongdoing and committing 14 felonies and paid two sets of fines totaling $1.7 billion. To win the referrals of doctors, Columbia/HCA would offer exotic trips like fishing in Costa Rica and hunting doves in Mexico. Columbia/HCA offered free office rent, fake consultation jobs and discounted pharmaceuticals so that doctors would direct patients to Columbia/HCA. The physician referral kickback scheme was causing Columbia/HCA to pay $6.9 million to doctors in order to generate $103 million in El Paso Medicare revenue. In 1997 the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Inspector General’s Office (OIG) was considering fining Columbia/HCA for a series of patient dumping cases. Columbia/HCA has even tried to hide evidence of fraud from federal regulators. Columbia/HCA’s new mission statement supported honesty and fairness in business practices and a commitment to quality healthcare. The company developed a company wide compliance, ethics and corporate responsibility program. He was given 12 staff members from corporate headquarters to work with the group of workers at the facility’s president to actively create their own corporate culture that favored ways to make Columbia workers feel like doing what is right. The Code of Conduct was developed for employees and internal reporting was established to deliberate events surrounding wrong doing. The Columbia leadership team then created 500 ECOs or ethic and compliance officers. References: Ferrell, L., Ferrell, O.C., Freaedrich, J. ( 2013), Business Ethics: Ethical Decision Making and Cases, 9th Edition, 2 year access Navran, F. (2010), Defining Values, Morals, and Ethics, Organizational Ethics, Compliance and Leadership, Navran Associates, Retreived from: navran/article-values-morals-ethics.html# Rick Scottts Role in Largest Medicare Ripoff in History: Miami Herald Probe, Retrieved from: newsmax/Politics/rick-scott-medicaid-hca/2010/06/27/id/363201/Newsmax Wires, (2010)
Posted on: Fri, 21 Mar 2014 23:37:50 +0000
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