FLORIDIAN OF THE YEAR: Kiran Patel
Health Care Entrepreneur
'First, I Gave to Charity...' Tampa entrepreneur
About 15 years ago,
The Hofei
In the mid-2000s.
As the economy recovered, city officials grew impatient, with some questioning whether Patel could pull off the project "This is a prime location. But if
Three years ago, construction got underway after Patel reconfigured the deal and secured new financing. In
Patel invoked the American dream, saying it was proof that "vision and innovation, faith and perseverance, can create something where there was once nothing."
"Well, nothing but the world's most expensive parking lot," he added, prompting laughter from the crowd.
Patel, 68, a cardiologist, comes by faith and perseverance naturally. Born in
Initially, the town in
"He might have jokingly said it," Patel says. "But I remember complaining to my mother that no matter what I did, I could not please him."
Patel's father helped build a Hindu temple and community center where Patel learned to speak Gujarati, the dialect of his father's native state. As a boy, Patel also took note of his father's negotiating skills. Once, a neighbor, a widowed mother, was facing bankruptcy and having to send her children to live with relatives overseas. Patel's father renegotiated her debt, in part by explaining to creditors that they could either work with her and get partial repayment or drive her out of
At 12, Patel left home to attend the only high school for Indian children in
When Patel arrived in
To pull off the
"I think he's about the only person who could have gotten that deal done," says
"He's a tough negotiator, but not a difficult negotiator," says Cohn, a senior relationship manager at Bank of America. "He's not going to let a large project fall by the wayside over a small negotiation point."
Patel says challenge motivates him. "When somebody says it cannot be done, that's the thing I want to do. I have to be different."
The
In
Patel had created other health care institutions. In the mid-1990s, he'd built a 50-bed hospital in
Several weeks after the purchase,
"We both grew up with an appreciation for hard work," says Hanbury, the son of a longshoreman from
Over dinner, Hanbury presented the Patels with a proposal. Nova already had an osteopathic medical school in
In October, at an event heavily covered by the Indian press, the Patels joined Hanbury in
The campus also will include a school offering degrees for physician assistants, occupational therapists, paramedics and other health care professionals. That health sciences school, with five locations statewide, will bear
"It's tough to say which is No. 1 - education or health care," says Patel, but "if you don't have health, everything is useless."
The 325,000-sq.-ft. med school complex in
The
Kiran and
In 1982, they followed
"I had decided I was never going to work for anybody," Patel says. "I don't want to be No. 2 or No. 3.1 always want to be that No. 1 guy."
He borrowed money to take over a retiring physician's local practice. At the time, fewer and fewer doctors were accepting HMO patients. "HMOs were like the plague," he told a group of local entrepreneurs in 2012. "Nobody wanted to touch a patient who had an HMO as his insurance." Patel says he treated the patients who were being turned away and learned to make money in managed care. He began buying other doctors' practices and eventually built a multi-specialty network with more than 8,000 patients.
In 1987, with Pradip as a key employee, Patel entered the health insurance business and took over WellCare, a small HMO on the verge of bankruptcy. He renegotiated the company's debt and cut costs. Then,
By 2002, WellCare had 1,200 employees and annual revenue of more than
In 2007, at the end of a five-year non-compete agreement with WellCare, Patel took a shot at turning around another managed care company. During the next decade, America's 1st Choice, which operates Medicare Advantage plans under the
Last May,
In October, he sold America's 1st Choice to
"There comes a point where one has to understand one's own limitation," Patel says. "To go to the next level, either I had to raise capital or do something different. I'm an entrepreneur, a free spirit. I don't like to report to anybody."
Anthem reportedly paid about
Investments - and Policy
"One should always plan to preserve and expand," Patel says. "If you can make money and use it for good causes, why not?" Last summer, Patel joined seven other local investors, including
Patel works mostly from home, typically in a golf shirt, slacks and, in keeping with Indian custom, no shoes. He says he's not slowing down after the Anthem deal. "I've not taken a day off. I'm continuing in the same rhythm and pace as before," he says.
While Patel says he has no plans to build another health insurance company, he has strong opinions about
"When you go to a hospital, there's one price for Humana, another price for
Patel says his solution is to require that uninsured patients be charged no more than the lowest insured prices for the same procedures. "It's so simple that people will not accept it," he says.
In November, Patel pledged
Patel says poor children should have the same chance for success as children who attend top-notch private schools. (Patel sent his children to Tampa's
"Politicians, every political cycle, talk about doing something for the underprivileged," he says. "But in the last 25-30 years, I have not seen a change. The situation more or less remains the same."
The pledge was just the latest in a philanthropic record that has seen the Patels give more than
Patel's earliest philanthropic efforts focused on cultivating Indian culture in
These days, Kiran and
"They were less interested in building a think tank and much more interested in building a 'do' tank," says
Other recipients of the Patels' generosity have included the
Patel also supports other entrepreneurs. He's founding chairman of the Tampa chapter of TiE (The Indus Entrepreneurs), a non-profit that promotes entrepreneurship. In 2016, he gave
He declines to divulge his net worth or what percentage he gives to charity. "There are no set rules, except to earn and spend ethically," he says.
"Once you've given someone an education, you've taken care of them for life."
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A History of Giving
Dr.
2000:
2002:
2005:
2012:
The couple's philanthropy also extends to
The Patels recently teamed with a foundation run by a
The Family
Patel says his wife, Dr.
The two met when both were starting medical school in
"He didn't know anybody, but he exuded confidence," Pallavi says. "I was attracted to that, and we became almost instant friends."
The two of them were born into different Hindu castes. Pallavi belonged to a merchant caste, Kiran to a farmer caste. It took a series of discussions before both families gave the couple permission to continue seeing each other.
"They were bold enough to transcend societal barriers," Kiran says. "My father told me, T can tolerate society's comments of you two marrying, but don't ever think of or bring me news of divorce.' That would really tarnish the family name."
Kiran ran for class representative during the first month of school, and to Pallavi's surprise, he got elected. "He captured a lot of people's attention," she says.
In 1973, Kiran and Pallavi graduated, married and moved to
Pallavi, who developed a successful pediatric practice in
Kiran and Pallavi - their friends and family call them Dr. K and Dr. P - have lived in the same home in
"All three children are settled in the
The Patels' son, Shilen, is CEO of
Like most families, the Patels aren't always harmonious. Four years ago, Patel feuded with his brother-in-law
Patel says his late brother-in-law believed, wrongly, "that if I can give charity to the world, why not him. I got dragged into the project, which was his dream, and the financial burden was put on me."
Patel says he impressed upon his children that they were responsible for their own futures. Years ago, after he bought a Lamborghini sports car, his son, Shilen, then 8, asked if the family was rich. "I may be rich, but you are not," Patel told him.
Patel says he began building the new home for his family only after "doing a lot of charity. First, I give to charity, then to myself. I don't forget to use my net worth to impact the world positively."
Kiran and
The Patels lived in the same home in
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