Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Despite Turmoil In Industry, It's Still Health Care CEOs Who Get Paid The Most In The Country
The Associated Press: Health Care CEOs Again Lead The Way In Pay
The highest pay packages go to CEOs at health care companies. For the third time in four years, chief executives in the health care field led the S&P 500 in terms of total compensation. The typical CEO in the industry made $16.1 million last year, which means half earned more than that, and half made less. A look at the top and bottom-paid CEOs last year, by industry, as calculated by The Associated Press and Equilar, an executive data firm. (5/24)
The New York Times: The Highest-Paid C.E.O.S Of 2018: A Year So Lucrative, We Had To Redraw Our Chart
In our annual ranking, we’re used to seeing paydays so big that they’re difficult to comprehend. But 2018 posed a problem on an entirely new scale. The pay package Tesla promised to Elon Musk was so large, we had to add an extra dimension to the chart below to display it accurately. (Russell and Williams, 5/24)
ProPublica: Senators Call For Disclosure Of Perks And Fees Paid To Health Benefits Brokers
Health benefits brokers would have to reveal the fees and other enticements they’ve received from the insurance industry under bipartisan legislation proposed Thursday in the U.S. Senate. The brokers are supposed to independently help employers select benefits for their workers. But a ProPublica investigation in February found that the insurance industry often uses undisclosed money and gifts to influence which plans the brokers favor. The payments and perks include healthy commissions, six-figure bonuses and exotic island vacations. Critics call the compensation a “classic conflict of interest” that drives up costs. (Allen, 5/24)
Modern Healthcare: Centene-WellCare Merger Information Sought By Justice Department
Health insurers Centene Corp. and WellCare Health Plans disclosed Thursday that federal antitrust regulators have asked for more information on their plans to merge. The companies said they each received requests for "additional information and documentary material" on May 22, but didn't go into more detail about what the Justice Department is seeking. Centene and WellCare still expect to close the merger in the first half of 2020, according to documents filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission this week. (Livingston, 5/24)
The Wall Street Journal: Daniel Loeb’s Hedge Fund Wants Centene To Consider Selling Itself
Daniel Loeb’s Third Point LLC has built a stake in Centene Corp. and wants the health insurer to consider selling itself before spending $15.3 billion on its deal to purchase WellCare Health Plans Inc., according to people familiar with the matter. While it isn’t clear exactly how big Third Point’s stake is, it owns at least $300 million in Centene shares, one of the people said. And with derivatives, the hedge fund could have significantly more exposure to Centene’s stock-price movement. Centene’s market value is roughly $22.8 billion. (Lombardo, 5/24)
The New York Times: Two Men Charged In Pelvic Mesh Removal Scheme
Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn have charged a physician and the owner of a medical consulting firm over a scheme to persuade women to have their pelvic mesh implants surgically removed to bolster the value of lawsuits against the devices’ manufacturers. The scheme alleged in the indictment on Friday is one of the more unsavory sides of the mass tort litigation against a half-dozen manufacturers of pelvic mesh, which has led to nearly $8 billion in settlements for roughly 100,000 women. (Goldstein, 5/24)
