Florida gubernatorial candidate Alex Sink this week will premiere an unusually long TV ad blasting her opponent Rick Scott for his role in one of the nation's largest medical scandals in history.
The two-minute ad, done in documentary style and dubbed the "Fraud Files," highlights Scott's troubled tenure as the former head of the Columbia/HCA hospital chain. The multi-million dollar Republican candidate was ousted as head of the medical group in 1997 after the federal government accused the chain of filing Medicare and Medicare claims for services it didn't perform. The company eventually reached a plea agreement that totaled $1.7 billion — the largest recovery ever reached by the U.S. government in a health care fraud investigation.
The ad also attacks Scott over his business dealings with Solantic, a chain of health care clinics he co-founded that the state is investigating for possible overbilling of Medicare.
The ad will begin airing Wednesday evening in the Tampa market, a political crucial battleground area. Sink, the state's chief financial officer, held a news conference Monday to discuss the ad — another unusual move for a candidate.
The candidates are locked in an extremely tight race that most pollsters say is too close to call.
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