News in brief - Oct. 27, 2003

Physician appraisals not common - Board member leaves HealthSouth - MarketRx secures financing

Physician appraisals not common

Physician performance appraisals are not common among medical groups, according to an informal survey conducted by the Medical Group Management Assn.

Only 21.1% of groups that responded to the MGMA survey reported conducting formal physician appraisals, and of those, only 51.4% said they conducted their appraisals annually. Other groups only conducted appraisals during the probation period, every two years, or only after the first year.

About one-fourth of responding groups said they used information from physician appraisals to help determine compensation. Groups were divided on who conducts the appraisals: 34.4% of respondents said appraisals were done by the medical director, while other physicians and the practice administrator each accounted for 31.3% of the responses.

The results were collected from 152 practices around the country as part of the MGMA's "information exchange," a bimonthly questionnaire sent to member groups.

Board member leaves HealthSouth

Former HealthSouth chief financial officer William T. Owens has resigned from the embattled company's board of directors more than six months after being fired for his role in a massive accounting scandal.

Owens had not been participating in board meetings since he was fired in March, a HealthSouth spokeswoman said. He formally withdrew from the board on Oct. 9.

He is one of 15 former HealthSouth executives, and five former CFOs, to agree to plead guilty to criminal charges in an investigation of widespread accounting fraud at the outpatient services giant. The Birmingham, Ala.-based company has been feeling fallout from the scandal since March, when federal investigators first publicly alleged that HealthSouth inflated earnings by as much as $2.4 billion.

Founder and former CEO Richard Scrushy was also fired in March and remains on the company's board of directors. In an Oct. 12 interview on CBS's "60 Minutes," Scrushy denied having anything to do with any fraud. The Securities and Exchange Commission has sued Scrushy in a civil case, naming him as the leader of the fraud, and the executives who have plead guilty also have said Scrushy was behind the fraud.

Owens' resignation leaves an opening on the board. Currently, there are nine active members plus Scrushy.

MarketRx secures financing

MarketRx Inc., which sells predictive data modeling and e-detailing services to pharmaceutical companies, has landed about $10.3 million from a group of private investors. The Bridgewater, N.J.-based company will use the money to fund sales activities, develop new products and expand its operations in India.