senate majority leader news from FierceHealthcare

Triggered by a newspaper's disclosure of details on the sale of a medical practice to a local hospital authority, a North Carolina state Senator has filed a bill which would make such contracts confidential. The newspaper, the Wilkes Journal-Patriot, had sued the Wilkes Regional Medical Center Hospital Authority to get details on a physician buyout contract, under which the medical center paid $650,000 to buy the assets of a local gastroenterologist's practice. The medical center …

Wall Street will just have to wait for its next big leveraged buyout, because it looks like leading hospital management company HCA isn't going to oblige. The company had convened a special board committee to consider a buyout offer from a group of private equity firms that included Bain Capital, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, Merrill Lynch and the family of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, whose father and brother founded HCA. But apparently the company's $11 billion debt load was an …

This week saw more controversy regarding some of the bad boys of healthcare past and strong hints that some of the healthcare market stars of the present may have adopted their bad habits. Criminal investigations into United HealthGroup and ACS are now following The Wall Street Journal story about their stock option pricing and Bill McGuire's huge fortune. Now Caremark has …

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) said he thinks his immigration reform plan could help hospitals in some states save millions by lowering their bill for uncompensated care. Frist's measure, which is one of a number of competing immigration bills under consideration in the Senate, would expedite deportation proceedings for illegal aliens caught within 100 miles of the border. "The people who are slipping through just put an undue stress on the hospitals," Frist said. "The …

Despite a distracting conflict of interest scandal involving Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) and losses during the Gulf storms, HCA posted fourth-quarter numbers that were about the same as last year's. Despite all the problems, the company's stock is trading at about $50, up more than 25 percent over a year ago.

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The budget reconciliation package passed by the Senate yesterday freezes a scheduled reimbursement rate cut of 4.4 percent which the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) had asked for. The American Medical Association and other doctors groups had lobbied intensely against the cuts that CMS officials have argued are necessary to help control rapidly rising healthcare costs. The new language of the bill must still be approved by the House, which is expected to vote on it later this week. …

> In Florida, Gov. Jeb Bush's plan to move Medicaid recipients to managed care is set to start in Broward County. Article

> State governments are joining the call for electronic health records, arguing that the lessons of Hurricane Katrina make such systems necessary investments. Article

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The investigation into Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist's (R-TN) financial dealings took another significant turn with the publication of evidence by The Washington Post which appears to contradict his claims that he had no control over his financial stake in the family business. According to Senate records obtained by the paper, Frist was notified "in writing by trustees fifteen times" between 2001 about details involving his accounts, including purchases of several …

HCA said this morning that its third-quarter profit will probably not match Wall Street's estimates as damage from the Gulf Coast hurricanes takes its toll. The company projects earnings of between 61 cents to 63 cents per share, lower than the 66 cents per share analysts had expected. HCA said it will buy back up to 50 million of its shares. The stock was up slightly on the combined news.

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