The latest “meme stock” doesn’t sell video games or own a movie-theater chain — it’s a health insurance company whose founders have been accused of slapping hospital patients with exorbitant bills.
Clover Health appears to have become popular with traders on Reddit this month partly because it had been a target of short seller Hindenburg Research, which in February issued a highly critical report that accused the company of misleading shareholders by failing to disclose an active Department of Justice investigation into “kickbacks and undisclosed third-party deals.”
But what’s lesser known is that Clover Health Chief Executive Vivek Garipalli and his co-founder Jeffrey Mandler are also the owners of CarePoint, a New Jersey hospital chain that has been in the crosshairs of regulators and lawmakers for years for turning a midsized medical center in a blue-collar city into the most expensive hospital in America — reportedly billing a teacher nearly $9,000 for a single bandage.
Clover CEO and CarePoint co-founder Vivek Garipalli purchased an $11 million Hamptons home while running some of the most expensive hospitals in New Jersey.Twitter
Before they created Clover in 2014, Garipalli and Mandler founded CarePoint by buying-out three bankrupt non-profit hospitals in Bayonne, Jersey City
