Man who got rich recovering part of plaintiffs' awards for hospitals has given $3 million to Baptist Health La Grange

George Rawlings
(PoloLine photo via Courier Journal)

A man who became wealthy getting money for hospitals from people who won large legal settlements after running up big health-care bills has made his second large gift to his hometown hospital, part of Kentucky's largest hospital chain.

George Rawlings and his wife Beverly, of La Grange, "donated $2 million to Baptist Health La Grange and the Baptist Health Foundation for the renovation of the hospital’s emergency department," Amanda Manning reports for The Oldham Era. "The donation is the largest gift that Baptist Health La Grange has received to date."

Last year, the couple "donated $1 million to the hospital toward the George and Beverly Rawlings Women’s Center," Manning reports.

“It is hard to express our level of gratitude,” Mary Michael Corbett, executive director of the Baptist Health Foundation of Greater Louisville, told the Era. “This is the second year that Mr. and Mrs. Rawlings and The Rawlings Foundation has reached out with a priceless gift around the holiday season.”

Rawlings said when the women's center gift was announced, “We’re blessed to be able to help the community and give. It’s really fun.”

In April 2018, Rawlings was the subject of a story in the Louisville Courier Journal, which said he "may be the richest Kentuckian you've never heard of" and moved from Louisville to La Grange in 2007.

"Rawlings is the father of a multi-billion-dollar industry that hunts down people who get legal settlements related to injuries from car wrecks or from defective products," Andrew Wolfson reported. "He recoups what their health-care provider spent on their medical care, keeps about 20 percent and sends the rest to the insurer. This has made him rich, and spawned a $2.5 billion national industry."

Subrogation is "an insurer's right to recover the amount it has paid for a loss from a third party that caused the loss." Wolfson explains. "Critics say the practice can be cruel because severely injured people can lose most or even all of a settlement – money they counted on to defray lost wages or compensate for pain and suffering. And sometimes they lose that money without being made whole for their damages."

Plaintiffs' lawyers "say Rawlings and others like him make their fortunes on the backs of injured people, often enriching themselves by riding the coattails of lawyers who sometimes fight for years to get settlements and verdicts. Other trial lawyers . . . say the Rawlings Group negotiated fair payments for their clients."

Rawlings "and other practitioners of health-care subrogation say it reduces health-insurance costs, allowing lower premiums for all employees," Wolfson wrote. "Proponents also say it would be unfair if an insurance company covers the medical bills but the injured person keeps money received from a third party to cover those same bills."

Wolfson's story began, "He divides his time between a 180-acre farm in Oldham County and the most expensive waterfront condominium ever sold in Palm Beach, Florida. He and his wife own the biggest private employer in Oldham County, where 1,500 people labor in a sprawling complex the size of four football fields. He has no children and has said he has no close friends. He plans to work until he dies."

Rawlings is a major philanthropist, Wolfson reported: "His foundation’s tax records show he and his company gave away a staggering $75 million in recent years to both sectarian charities and evangelical causes, including youth camps in 13 underdeveloped countries. The late Rev. Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University, where the divinity school is named for the Rawlings family, is a favorite."