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 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)
In our annual ranking, we鈥檙e used to seeing paydays so big that they鈥檙e 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)
Health benefits brokers would have to reveal the fees and other enticements they鈥檝e 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 鈥渃lassic conflict of interest鈥 that drives up costs. (Allen, 5/24)
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)
Daniel Loeb鈥檚 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鈥檛 clear exactly how big Third Point鈥檚 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鈥檚 stock-price movement. Centene鈥檚 market value is roughly $22.8 billion. (Lombardo, 5/24)
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鈥 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)
