After moving to Tampa, Florida in 1982, Patel began his practice as a cardiologist. In 1985 he started a physicians practice ownership and management company, which quickly expanded to 14 practices including family medicine, internal medicine, pediatrics and cardiology. In 1992 Patel became chairman of the board of Well Care HMO, INC. which under his leadership became this 5th largest Medicaid HMO in the United States. In 1999, he acquired 55% of Kingston N.Y.-based WellCare Management Group Inc, which managed two HMO's in Connecticut and New York. In 2002, he sold majority share in the WellCare Management Group, at which point WellCare Management was providing services to over 400,000 members. In 2007, Patel started a new insurance holding company called America's 1st Choice Holdings of Florida and acquired two Tampa Bay based Medicare Advantage Health Plans, Freedom Health and Optimum Health. He grew these companies to over 115,000 members and over $1 billion in revenue, at which point he sold to Anthem in April of 2019.
Medical insurance
In 1992, Patel bought Well Care HMO, Inc. for approximately $5 million. He sold the company a decade later in 2002 for $200 million. In 2007 he purchased Freedom Health and Optimum Healthcare Inc. In 2017, he sold his second insurance company – America’s 1st Choice to Anthem Inc. for an undisclosed amount.
Controversies
On 17 August 2009, a whistleblower filed a complaint with the district court in Tampa, alleging that Freedom was manipulating enrollment rolls. Patel and his brother Rupesh Shah were among the named defendants. The complaint also alleged that Freedom was engaging in service-area-expansion fraud—misrepresenting the number of health-care providers in its network in certain counties so that it could expand the areas in which it offered Medicare Advantage. Once the investigation was announced, Patel told employees "not to destroy documents or other evidence" in an emergency meeting. New Yorker article further reports, "In 2016, seven years after Darren Sewell filed his case, the Justice Department informed Inman that it would join the suit. In May of 2017, after months of difficult negotiations, Freedom settled charges that it had violated the False Claims Act and agreed to pay $31.7 million. Freedom's former chief operating officer, Sidd Pagidipati, paid seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars to settle charges related to his role in the alleged service-area-expansion fraud. Neither admitted liability.
Awards and recognition
In 2019, Patel was given the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman by the government of India. In January 2019, the Clearwater City Council issued a resolution to rename Damascus Road as Dr. Kiran C. Patel Boulevard in recognition of Patel's contribution to Nova Southeastern University's Tampa Bay Regional Campus.
Charity history
Patel has supported multiple groups through charitable donations