DSCC Statement On Herschel Walker’s Involvement In For-Profit Program That “Preyed Upon Veterans And Service Members”

In response to bombshell reporting from the Associated Press revealing that Herschel Walker enriched himself working for a private hospital chain that “preyed upon veterans and service members while defrauding the government” – and then lied about his role – Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee spokesperson Amanda Sherman-Baity issued the following statement:

“Every scandal that emerges about Herschel Walker reinforces why he has no place in the Senate. His work on behalf of a for-profit hospital chain that preyed on veterans and service members is the latest revelation in the long list of dishonest schemes he’s perpetrated – and every time he’s confronted with his record, his explanations raise more questions. For voters, the conclusion will be simple: Walker is not who he says he is, not up for the job, and shouldn’t be representing Georgians in the Senate.”

See for yourself:

Associated Press: Herschel Walker’s ties to veterans program face scrutiny
By Brian Slodysko and Jeff Amy
May 22, 2022

Key Points:

• Herschel Walker… often boasts of his work helping service members and veterans struggling with mental health. In interviews and campaign appearances, the former Dallas Cowboy and Heisman Trophy winner takes credit for founding, co-founding and sometimes operating a program called Patriot Support.

• But corporate documents, court records and Senate disclosures reviewed by The Associated Press tell a more complicated story. Together they present a portrait of a celebrity spokesman who overstated his role in a for-profit program that is alleged to have preyed upon veterans and service members while defrauding the government.

• The revelation marks the latest example of a far more complex reality that lies beneath the carefully curated autobiography Walker has pitched to voters.

• Walker’s campaign would not make him available for an interview.

• Even before entering the race, Walker drew attention for his past mental health struggles, as well as allegations that he threatened his ex-wife’s life. He’s dramatically inflated his record as a businessman, as the AP previously reported. And his claim that he graduated at the top of his class from the University of Georgia, where he led the Bulldogs to a 1980 championship, was also untrue. He didn’t graduate, as the Atlanta Journal-Constitution first reported.

• Patriot Support is not a charity. It’s a for-profit program specifically marketed to veterans that is offered by Universal Health Services, one of the largest hospital chains in the U.S. Walker wasn’t the program’s founder, either. It was created 11 years before Universal Health Services says it hired Walker as a spokesman, which paid him a salary of $331,000 last year.

• Court documents, meanwhile, offer a far more troubling picture of its care for veterans and service members.

• A sprawling civil case brought against Universal Health Services by the the Department of Justice and nearly two dozen states alleges that Patriot Support was part of a broader effort by the company to defraud the government.

• Prosecutors allege Universal Health Services and its affiliates aggressively pushed those with government-sponsored insurance into inpatient mental health care to drive revenue.

• To achieve this end, the company pushed staff at its mental health facilities to misdiagnose patients and falsify documents in order to hospitalize those who did not require it, according to court records. In other cases, they failed to discharge those who no longer needed hospitalization, according to the DOJ.

• As a celebrity spokesman, Walker was part of the public relations blitz.

• Walker acknowledged on Saturday that he didn’t create Patriot Support. But he told reporters that he did start Ascend Health’s Freedom Care program in 2007.

• But government filings show Freedom Care was developed by the company in 2006, a year before Walker claimed to have created it. Meanwhile, an archived company website lists Walker as a spokesman. And a U.S. military news release about the program says Walker didn’t join until 2008 — two years after it was developed.

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