Richard Scrushy

> In the wake of the Wal-Mart memo, The Wall Street Journal looks at strategies some employers are using to select healthier employees. Article (sub. req.)

> A Harris Interactive/Wall Street Journal poll finds Americans to be generally skeptical about in-store clinics that offer basic healthcare services. …

> The Department of Health and Human Services says it has reached terms with Sanofi-Aventis on a deal which will see the French pharma company produce its experimental HN51 vaccine. Story

> Private equity firm Blackstone is paying $1.7 billion for specialist health insurer UICI. Story

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> Researchers at the National Institutes of Health report that the number of Americans with allergies has doubled since the 1970s. Story

> The Washington Post writes that the Pentagon has drawn up new plans calling for "unprecedented military involvement" in domestic emergency response and crisis management in the event of attacks on the mainland US. …

> Federal prosecutors say they will not bring perjury charges against Richard Scrushy. The SEC charges against him are not affected. Story (Wall Street Journal sub. req.)

> Respected cardiologist Eric J. Topol writes that Natracor should be off the market in a commentary in this week's New England Journal of Medicine. …

Things may be about to get a little hotter for Richard Scrushy, the ex-CEO of HealthSouth, who was acquitted last week of federal fraud and racketeering charges. The Securities and Exchange Commission said this week that it wants its lawsuit against the former healthcare executive to continue. SEC lawyers argue that Scrushy should be ordered to pay back at least $800 million lost in the accounting fraud. Story

As expected, ex-HealthSouth CEO Richard Scrushy appears to be moving quickly on his plan to get his old job back. The Wall Street Journal reports that Scrushy plans to contact large shareholders in an effort to convince them he should be brought back on. The HealthSouth board has said it has no intention of allowing him to return. At an investor meeting in New York, current CEO Jay Grinney attempted to reassure shareholders saying, "the board has made it absolutely clear he will …

> After a long silence, agriculture officials said they had traced a case of Mad Cow disease to a Texas herd. Story

> Unhappy with the handling of the case, health groups, including the American Cancer Society and the American Heart Association, have petitioned to join the government's lawsuit against big tobacco. …

The acquittal of ex-HealthSouth CEO Richard Scrushy on federal fraud charges dominates healthcare news this morning. Most legal observers had predicted a guilty verdict on the strength of the evidence against Scrushy. A Birmingham, Alabama jury was not convinced, however. The Wall Street Journal notes that "the acquittal casts a long shadow on the Sarbanes-Oxley law in its first test."

The ex-CEO will now try to enforce a clause in his employment agreement which his …

Healthsouth CEO Richard Scrushy has just been found not guilty on 36 counts of orchestrating one of the largest frauds in the history of American healthcare. For nearly a decade HealthSouth misstated earnings and revenues by up to $3.9 billion. Shareholders saw their stock value obliterated when the fraud was discovered in 2003, and Scrushy was one of the first CEOs tried under the new Sarbanes-Oxley regulations.

In deeply related news, HealthSouth filed restated earnings …

Prosecutors said they want a review of light sentences handed out to two former HealthSouth executives who pled guilty to participating in the giant fraud at the company. Mike Martin and Richard Botts received $10,000 fines and sentences of home confinement for their role in the conspiracy last year. Prosecutors will ask for jail time for both men. "It's appropriate that they go to jail," said US Attorney Alice Martin.

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