High-End Health Care in the Boardroom – DealBook Blog – NYTimes.com

Spouse travel at Footlocker, out of state physicals at Stryker and executive physicals at Norfolk Southern.

Directors and executives at Norfolk Southern may be among the healthiest out there, judging from the proxy that the company filed Tuesday.  That’s because the railroad operator covers up to $10,000 a year in medical expenses for each nonexecutive director as well as a group of top executives, including Charles W. Moorman IV, its chairman and chief executive. Mr. Moorman spent $4,800 on his physical last year and another $4,800 in 2007. Four other executives spent between $3,800 and $4,800 on the perk.

via High-End Health Care in the Boardroom – DealBook Blog – NYTimes.com.

Filed under: Concierge Medicine, Conflicts of Interest, Executive Compensation, Health Law, Conflicts of Interest, Economics, Law

The Washington Independent » Rick Scott on His Health Care Record

The NY Times did an article on Mr. Rick Scott recently. Also of note, The Washington Independent interviewed Rick Scott on March 31, 2009.  You’ll recall him as the ousted CEO of Columbia/HCA after their trillion dollar fraud settlement with the federal government.  He’s back in the headlines as a ‘conservative’ voice against a potential Obama healthcare reform initiative.  I note only due to his comments on Columbia/HCA at the time.

RICK SCOTT: There’s no grudge. First off, if you go back and look at what we accomplished at Columbia/HCA, it was the lowest prices and best outcomes. I left and nothing happened to me. I can’t do anything about what people want to complain about. But if you look at what we’re doing, we’re doing the right things.

TWI: What, specifically?

RICK SCOTT: If you go look at Solantic [which Scott co-founded in 2001], we have transparency on prices, we’re dramatically less expensive than everyone else and we have a great service. Or go back and look at Columbia, look at all the objective measures. Go look at joint commission, accommodation, at accreditation. If you look at the top 100 hospitals, we started with less than seven percent of them. My last year, we had 27 percent of those hospitals. If you look at my management team, all of my management team went on and ran hospital companies.

TWI: People can still say, “Look, this was the guy who resigned in the biggest fraud settlement in American history.”

RICK SCOTT: But, you know, we were the biggest company. If you go back and look at the hospital industry, and the whole health care industry since the mid-1990s, it was basically constantly going through investigations. Great institutions, like ours, paid fines. It was too bad.

via The Washington Independent » Rick Scott on His Health Care Record.

Filed under: AKS, CMP, Drug Policy, Executive Compensation, Health Law, Reform, Risk Management, Economics, Health, Health Law

A Trip to the Doctor’s on the Company Jet – DealBook Blog – NYTimes.com

NYT’s Dealwatch Blog reports on the medical device company Stryker’s proxy statement detailing executive perquisites.

What does it say about the local medical community when the chief executive of a large medical technology company has to hop on the corporate jet and fly to another city to get an annual physical? That’s the situation at Stryker, based in Kalamazoo, Mich., which disclosed in its proxy that Stephen P. MacMillan, its chief executive and president, “traveled to a physical exam on the company aircraft.” *** Stryker “believes that its perquisites practices are conservative[.]”

via A Trip to the Doctor’s on the Company Jet – DealBook Blog – NYTimes.com.

Filed under: Conflicts of Interest, Executive Compensation, Health Law, Conflicts of Interest, Executive Compensation, Health Law