News in brief - July 4, 2005

Ex-HealthSouth executive sentenced - Cerner acquires Bridge Medical - IBM acquires HealthLink - Medica alleges hacker attacks

Ex-HealthSouth executive sentenced

A former HealthSouth executive has been sentenced to six months of home detention for his role in a kickback scheme involving a hospital in Saudi Arabia.

Vincent Nico, a former vice president of the outpatient services giant, was also sentenced May 26 in U.S. District Court in Birmingham, Ala., to 36 months of probation and ordered to pay a $250,000 fine. Prosecutors had sought a prison term.

Nico and Thomas Carman, another former vice president at HealthSouth, pleaded guilty to criminal charges in an investigation alleging that they schemed to bribe an executive of a Saudi Arabian foundation to help HealthSouth secure a contract to provide staffing and management services for a hospital.

Carman is scheduled to be sentenced July 28. U.S. Attorney Alice Martin said that under an agreement with prosecutors he would also have to serve six months of home detention.

Cerner acquires Bridge Medical

Cerner Corp. has agreed to acquire Bridge Medical Inc., a seller of bar-coded patient safety software and services, for $11 million. Bridge Medical, Solana Beach, Calif., is a subsidiary of AmerisourceBergen Corp.

The sale agreement calls for Kansas City, Mo.-based Cerner to make more payments to AmerisourceBergen if Bridge Medical hits certain milestones through Jan. 1, 2006.

Cerner, which sells hospital systems, said the acquisition will expand its reach in the growing patient care bar-coding market. The acquisition is expected to close this month.

IBM acquires HealthLink

IBM says it has acquired health care information technology consulting company HealthLink in a multimillion-dollar deal, though it did not state the specific purchase price.

Healthlink, in its annual report, noted 2004 revenues of $65 million, more than double what they were in 2000. Chief Executive Ivo Nelson told the Houston Chronicle that the privately held company is expected to have $100 million in annual revenues this year, driven by hospital clients' desire to automate their systems.

Medica alleges hacker attacks

In recently filed court papers, Minnesota-based health plan Medica says that hackers twice in January stole sensitive and confidential information from its computers. Medica also alleges hackers shut down parts of its computer system at least four times.

The allegations come in a federal lawsuit Medica filed against two ex-employees, Austin Vhason and Pushpa Leadholm, whom it accuses of committing the security breaches. Vhason and Leadholm deny the allegations. They say Medica is responding because they filed a racial discrimination complaint against the company with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Medica has not commented on that allegation.

The company said no personal member information appears to have been taken during the alleged security breaches. The company said the information accessed was mostly in trade secrets and employee evaluations.