News in brief - Oct. 9, 2006

UnitedHealth takes HCA to court - Target severs ties with MinuteClinic - Zix stock faces delisting - Physician consultants merge - Thomson acquires Solucient LLC

UnitedHealth takes HCA to court

UnitedHealthcare has sued HCA in Colorado alleging that the for-profit hospital chain engaged in anticompetitive behavior.

Tensions between the insurance giant, a division of Minnetonka, Minn.-based UnitedHealth Group, and the Nashville-based hospital operator heated up after they failed to reach a new contract before their former agreement expired in August. United says it has 850,000 members in Colorado, where HCA operates as HealthOne in the Denver area.

In a lawsuit filed Sept. 18 in federal court in Denver, United said HCA had used its market dominance to attempt to extort anticompetitive rates from the insurer. The lawsuit also said that HCA tied its contracts with its imaging centers to the hospital service contracts in an effort to get more money.

United also sought a temporary restraining order to stop its contract for imaging and mammography services with HCA from expiring in November. U.S. District Judge Robert Blackburn denied the request.

In court filings, HCA said that United was using the courts to "wage a pitched public relations battle in order to attempt to regain an upper hand in ongoing negotiations." The hospital chain also said that United couldn't prove its claims about anticompetitive behavior.

The two companies have also been at odds over contract negotiations in parts of Florida.

Target severs ties with MinuteClinic

Target Corp. announced Sept. 18 that it has partnered with Medcor to open in-store health clinics at eight of its stores in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area.

The Minnesota-based retailer had previously worked with MinuteClinic. But that relationship ended after a Target competitor, CVS Corp., acquired MinuteClinic this summer, according to the St. Paul Pioneer Press.

Medcor, of McHenry, Ill., provides outsourced occupational health services to businesses, government agencies and other organizations. The health clinics will be staffed by nurse practitioners who will treat nonemergent problems.

Separately, Take Care Health Systems Inc., Conshohocken, Pa., has announced expansion of its in-store clinic market operations to Pittsburgh.

During the week of Sept. 18, Take Care opened three in-store clinics and will open another seven in October, all at Eckerd drug stores in Pittsburgh.

By the end of October, Take Care Health System will be operating 29 retail-based health clinics in Kansas, Missouri and Pennsylvania. That number will rise to 49 when it opens clinics at 20 Walgreen Co. drug stores in the Chicago area by the end of the year, said Lauren Tierney, a spokeswoman for Take Care Health Systems.

Zix stock faces delisting

Zix Corp. reported that it had been notified by Nasdaq that its stock could be delisted from trading on that stock exchange because as of Sept. 14 it had closed below $1 per share for 30 consecutive days. The Dallas-based provider of electronic prescribing services, has until March 14, 2007, to comply with Nasdaq's minimum price requirement, or it will be delisted, according to a Sept. 19 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, To remain listed, Zix's stock must trade at or above $1 a share for at least 10 consecutive business days. The stock closed on Sept. 21 at 69 cents a share.

Physician consultants merge

MedSynergies Inc., an Irving, Tex., provider of financial and technology consulting services to physicians, announced Sep. 18 that it merged with Practice Performance Inc. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Dallas-based PPI is a health care management and technology company. The merged company will operate under the name of MedSynergies.

Thomson acquires Solucient LLC

Thomson Corp. announced Sep. 18 that it agreed to acquire Solucient LLC, an Evanston, Ill., provider of health care decision support tools. Stamford, Conn.-based Thomson did not disclose the terms of the proposed acquisition, which the company said will strengthen its health care decision support product line.