Herschel Walker’s ties to veterans program face scrutiny | Health and Fitness

In interviews and marketing campaign appearances, the previous Dallas Cowboy and Heisman Trophy winner takes credit score for founding, co-founding and generally working a program known as Patriot Assist. This system, he says, has taken him to navy bases all around the world.

“About fifteen years in the past, I began a program known as Patriot Assist,” Walker mentioned in an interview with conservative commentator Hugh Hewitt final October. “Individuals have to know I began a navy program, a navy program that treats (1000’s) of troopers a yr,” he advised Savannah TV station WTGS in February.

However company paperwork, courtroom information and Senate disclosures reviewed by The Related Press inform a extra sophisticated story. Collectively they current a portrait of a star spokesman who overstated his function in a for-profit program that’s alleged to have preyed upon veterans and repair members whereas defrauding the federal government.

The revelation marks the most recent instance of a much more complicated actuality that lies beneath the rigorously curated autobiography Walker has pitched to voters.

Walker’s marketing campaign wouldn’t make him obtainable for an interview.

“So let me get this straight — you’re demonizing Herschel for being the face of a corporation for 14 years that has helped tens of 1000’s of troopers affected by psychological sickness,” Walker spokeswoman Mallory Blount mentioned in an emailed assertion that additionally criticized the media.

Even earlier than coming into the race, Walker drew consideration for his previous mental health struggles, together with allegations that he threatened his ex-wife’s life. He is dramatically inflated his record as a businessman, because the AP beforehand reported. And his declare that he graduated on the high of his class from the College of Georgia, the place he led the Bulldogs to a 1980 championship, was additionally unfaithful. He didn’t graduate, because the Atlanta Journal-Structure first reported.

Political candidates typically gild their story and, thus far, within the race for the Republican Senate nomination with the backing of former President Donald Trump, Walker’s troubled background, falsehoods and contradictions haven’t carried a value. But when he wins Tuesday’s major, through which he holds a dominating lead, Democrats are prone to spotlight unflattering components of his story in what’s shaping up as one of many fiercest fall contests, with management of the U.S. Senate within the stability.

“Walker has a troubled file, a lot of which Republicans have already been sounding the alarm on,” mentioned J.B. Poersch, the president of Senate Majority PAC, a marketing campaign arm for Senate Democrats that pays for thousands and thousands of {dollars} in assault adverts. “A whole lot of the dialogue on his file will carry over into the overall election as a result of voters should know the reality.”

Properly earlier than his candidacy, Walker acquired plaudits for his work with Patriot Assist. His visits to bases have been touted in navy press releases. And in 2014, as a star contestant on a Meals Community sport present, Walker gained a $50,000 prize to donate to his charity of alternative, Patriot Assist.

However Patriot Assist just isn’t a charity. It is a for-profit program particularly marketed to veterans that’s provided by Common Well being Companies, one of many largest hospital chains within the U.S. Walker wasn’t this system’s founder, both. It was created 11 years earlier than Common Well being Companies says it employed Walker as a spokesman, which paid him a wage of $331,000 final yr.

And the $50,000 prize he earned from the Meals Community did not go to Patriot Assist, however was as an alternative donated to a Paralympic Veterans program in Patriot Assist’s identify.

Courtroom paperwork, in the meantime, provide a much more troubling image of its look after veterans and repair members.

A sprawling civil case introduced towards Common Well being Companies by the the Division of Justice and practically two dozen states alleges that Patriot Assist was a part of a broader effort by the corporate to defraud the federal government.

Prosecutors allege Common Well being Companies and its associates aggressively pushed these with government-sponsored insurance coverage into inpatient psychological well being care to drive income. That is as a result of, in contrast to typical personal insurers, authorities plans don’t restrict the length of hospital stays for psychiatric care as long as particular standards are met, making such sufferers extra worthwhile, the federal government alleged.

To realize this finish, the corporate pushed workers at its psychological well being amenities to misdiagnose sufferers and falsify paperwork as a way to hospitalize those that didn’t require it, in line with courtroom information. In different circumstances, they did not discharge those that now not wanted hospitalization, in line with the DOJ.

A prolonged 2016 investigation by the website BuzzFeed included interviews with former sufferers, together with a veteran, who mentioned they went to Common Well being Companies in search of a session or counseling solely to search out themselves held in inpatient care, generally towards their will.

Veterans and repair members have been a selected focus, in line with courtroom paperwork.

The corporate employed “navy liaisons” to go to bases and develop relationships with navy medical workers, therapy facility commanders and clinicians, courtroom paperwork state.

“To maximise the circulation of navy sufferers, UHS engaged in an aggressive marketing campaign … to market its ‘Patriot Assist program,’” an organization whistleblower who ran the admissions program at a Utah hospital said in a 2014 courtroom doc.

As a star spokesman, Walker was a part of the general public relations blitz.

The corporate reached a $122 million settlement in 2020 with the Division of Justice and the coalition of states.

Jane Crawford, a spokeswoman for Common Well being Companies, denied the whistleblower’s account of an aggressive advertising and marketing marketing campaign to attract service members into the corporate’s Patriot Assist program. She additionally mentioned among the alleged conduct occurred earlier than Common Well being Companies bought a bunch of hospitals operated by Ascend Well being in 2012. Ascend Well being ran an analogous veterans’ program known as Freedom Care, which Walker was additionally a spokesman for.

Common Well being Companies additionally denies the federal government’s broader allegations and mentioned it agreed to the settlement to “keep away from the persevering with prices and uncertainty of continued litigation.”

Although Walker touts his function with Patriot Assist on the marketing campaign path, there isn’t any suggestion he was instantly concerned in any wrongdoing on the hospitals. The corporate declined to resume his contract this yr and an in depth biography of Walker was faraway from the Patriot Assist web site.

“Herschel Walker served as nationwide spokesperson for our Anti-Stigma marketing campaign from 2010 to 2021,” Crawford, the corporate spokeswoman, mentioned in an announcement. “As a psychological well being advocate, Mr. Walker shared his private journey to lift consciousness and encourage others to hunt assist. He’s now not contracted with Common Well being Companies.”

Regardless of the regular stream of revelations about Walker, together with his function with Patriot Assist, some Republican strategists doubt they are going to harm his probabilities in a basic election contest with Sen. Raphael Warnock, who’s Georgia’s first Black senator.

Whit Ayres, a longtime Republican strategist who began his agency in Georgia, mentioned Walker is “like a God” within the state.

“There are nonetheless youngsters who will put on Herschel Walker’s soccer jerseys some 40 years after he performed for the College of Georgia. So destructive info will likely be heard with a heavy dose of skepticism,” mentioned Ayres. “That doesn’t imply that some allegations gained’t penetrate considerably, however they gained’t do wherever close to as a lot harm as to a traditional candidate.”