Insurance giant UnitedHealth Group Inc. said it has agreed to acquire Brazil's largest healthcare company for $4.9 billion in cash, continuing a recent buying spree by U.S. insurers. UnitedHealth, the largest U.S. health insurer with about 36 million customers, said it will acquire Amil Participacoes SA to capture more growth from Latin America. Amil has annual revenue of about $5 billion and in addition to providing health benefits it also runs 22 hospitals and nearly 50 clinics. In Brazil, UnitedHealth sees a fast-growing economy where the private health market is still largely untapped. The company said only about 25% of the population has private insurance compared with nearly 80% in the U.S.
Highmark Inc.'s suggestion—its demand, as far as West Penn Allegheny Health System is concerned—that WPAHS file for bankruptcy would not be the first time a hospital or health system went that route on its way to an unencumbered purchase by another party. "The issue from the buyer's side is that they would prefer everything to be cleaned up before they get their hands on it, and a buyer of assets out of bankruptcy can get very clean title," said Downtown bankruptcy attorney Robert S. Bernstein. The process can eliminate all claims, liens and encumbrances, he added, "and deliver to the buyer exactly what they purchased with very little risk."
Insurance companies, often stuck with the tab for health services when a medical device fails, are ready to share the pain. As the number of costly, high-profile recalls rises, along with pressure to cut their own spending, insurers are starting to pin more of the responsibility on manufacturers. If they succeed, medical device makers—already worried about weaker global demand for many of their products and the impact of a new U.S. tax on their profits—will have even more costs in the wake of product recalls, the biggest of which can already lead to billions of dollars in expenses. "The (insurance) plans are being more aggressive. The reason it gets so much more focus now is because there are so many cases," said Mark Fischer, chairman of Rawlings & Associates, a unit of the Rawlings Group that helps insurance companies with subrogation.
Neighborhood clinics believe they will feel the impact of cuts to the Interim LSU Hospital in more than one way. The hospital is facing hundreds of layoffs and a reduction in medical services because of a funding crisis. After Hurricane Katrina left the sprawling Charity Hospital shuttered, the Interim LSU Hospital serves much of the uninsured and under-insured in the area. But now the hospital is facing a $49 million dollar funding cut. In light of that, community clinics in the city are bracing for the fallout. "I'm very concerned. LSU has been a great resource for our patients for specialty care," said Meshawn Tarver, executive director of the Common Ground Health Clinic in Algiers. Tarver is concerned about seriously ill patients the clinic usually refers to the hospital for care.
Parkland Memorial Hospital has hired a high-level aide to Gov. Rick Perry as its government relations vice president, three months before the 2013 legislative session begins. Katherine L. Yoder, 36, a Perry health-care policy and budget adviser, replaces the Dallas hospital's longtime top lobbyist, Jennifer Cutrer. Parkland said in a written statement late last week that Cutrer had retired, but it did not elaborate. Yoder's hire comes as Texas, led by its Health and Human Services Commission, overhauls its Medicaid program. The overhaul has caused uneasiness among some hospitals because it will impact how they are paid for treating indigent patients.
In a 20-page original petition filed Oct. 4 in the Houston Division of the Southern District of Texas, Dr. Walter Zawislak alleges Memorial Hermann placed him on a National Practitioners Data Bank adverse action report in response to his attempts to address violations of the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act at Houston's Memorial Hermann Southeast Hospital. The emergency medicine physician explains that there were instances when certain patients at Memorial Hermann's southeast Houston facilities required the services of a physician whom the hospital system named to its on-call list, however, "the on-call physician failed or refused to appear within a reasonable period of time" after he notified them, stating the respondent "did not take action."