AIS's Health Business Daily

April 11, 2008

"The government is stretching the anti-kickback and Stark laws out of shape by claiming the mere opportunity for physicians to earn a fee for legitimate services somehow in and of itself represents a payment for referrals. Utterly novel theories are being applied."

-- Washington, D.C., attorney Paul Danello, who represents The Christ Hospital, which is the subject of a False Claims Act lawsuit for allegedly rewarding cardiologists for referrals by giving them preferential assignments to a hospital-based diagnostic unit.

Today's Featured Story

Health Plan Payments to Lobbyists Soared in 2007, Could Grow More in 2008

$650 million

…will be paid by Merck & Co. to settle two long-standing whistleblower lawsuits that claim the drug company failed to pay proper rebates to Medicaid and overcharged Medicaid for certain drugs

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People On the Move

Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield in New Hampshire named Douglas Wenners president following the promotion of Lisa Guertin to senior vice president of commercial marketing and product for WellPoint, Inc., Anthem's parent company. Wenners was vice president of health care management.…The American Medical Group Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the American Medical Group Association, added five new members to its board of directors: James Boswell, a partner and CEO at the Northeast Arkansas Clinic; Lawrence Casalino, M.D., associate professor at the University of Chicago; Francis Crosson, M.D., a senior fellow at the Kaiser Permanente Institute for Health Policy and associate executive director of the Permanente Medical Group; Albert Fisk, M.D., medical director at the Everett Clinic; and Michael Millenson, president of Health Quality Advisors, LLC.

Health Reform and the 2008 Elections:
What's Ahead for Health Care Access, Delivery and Financing
July 10-11, The Washington Court Hotel, Capitol Hill, Washington, D.C.
Speakers include Senators Rockefeller, Hatch and Wyden and Congressmen Stark, Waxman and Camp. You'll also hear reform perspectives from the Clinton, McCain and Obama presidential campaigns, leaders from prominent health business organizations, health policy analysts, and state legislators. Click here.

Today's Featured Health Business Job Opening

Harvard Pilgrim Health Care
Contracting Specialist
Quincy, Mass.

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