Corporate news

The wife of former Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.) is under pressure to resign from the board of insurance giant WellPoint after the insurance lobby America's Health Insurance Plans transferred $86 million to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce while the chamber was actively opposing President Obama's healthcare reform law in 2010. 

A coalition of activist investor groups is launching a campaign calling for the heads of Susan Bayh and another WellPoint board member, The Washington Post reports. The groups allege that the board failed to oversee "high risk political spending" in the run-up to the 2010 midterm elections that saw Democrats lose 66 seats in the House and another six in the Senate.

The campaign reveals a "new militancy" in the fight to require companies to disclose their political donations ahead of the 2012 elections, the Post reports. A spokesman for the Chamber told the paper it was "part of a coordinated effort by the left to silence the business community and create one-sided debates, the only ones they can win."

"Our shareholders voiced their opinion on the issue of political disclosure just two years ago," WellPoint said in a statement. "A proposal that would have required additional reporting was voted down by WellPoint shareholders by a wide margin (by 82% of shareholders). Shareholders will have another opportunity to voice their views on this subject at next month's annual meeting."

Bayh, who voted for the healthcare reform law, resigned in 2010 after just two terms in the Senate, saying the body had grown too dysfunctional to get anything done. He then went on to work at a lobbying firm and as a contributor for Fox News.

Update: This post was updated at 12 p.m. to reflect that the Chamber of Commerce received $86 million from AHIP, not its member company WellPoint.

Pharmaceutical giants Pfizer and GlaxoKleinSmith are the latest firms to come under pressure to sever their ties with the conservative American Legislative Exchange Council in the wake of the Trayvon Martin shooting in Florida.

ALEC helps craft business-friendly legislation for state lawmakers across the country, such as legislation outlawing penalties for failing to obey the federal health law's individual mandate. Long a target for liberal groups, the group has come under intense scrutiny over the past few weeks over its support of NRA-backed "Stand Your Ground" legislation that enhances citizens' ability to claim self-defense to avoid prosecution for harming or killing someone.

"The public is fed up with big pharmaceutical companies pursuing profit over the interests of the average American," Bob Edgar, president of the liberal advocacy group Common Cause, announced Thursday. "ALEC's pro-corporate agenda to limit voting rights, undermine our public schools, assault collective bargaining and weaken laws protecting our environment is in diametric opposition to the public interest. This is neither good business nor responsible corporate citizenship."

The healthcare sector added another 26,000 jobs in March, with physicians' offices and hospitals each adding 8,000 jobs, the Labor Department reported Friday.

The healthcare consulting group founded by Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy Wednesday according to court documents obtained by the Atlanta Business Chronicle. 

Gingrich stepped down from his leadership position with the Center for Health Transformation when he began his 2012 presidential campaign. According to the filing, the firm estimates liabilities between $1 million and $10 million despite assets below $100,000 and says it will be unable to pay its dozens of unsecured creditors.

The bankruptcy will likely deal another damaging blow to Gingrich's already struggling presidential campaign. The former House Speaker has not won a primary contest since his home state of Georgia on Super Tuesday, and he announced last week that he would lay off a third of his campaign staff and substantially scale back his campaign activities.

Express Scripts is set to start a 30-day period for antitrust regulators to rule whether it can merge with Medco, Bloomberg reports.

Some health advocates think the Obama administration shouldn't sprinkle its prevention grants far and wide but instead channel them into proven programs, Kaiser Health News reports.

Talking Points Memo thinks Justice Antonin Scalia's 1990 opinion allowing Oregon to deny benefits to peyote smokers puts the Obama administration's birth control decision on firm legal ground.

Death row inmates are asking a federal judge to block importation of an execution drug, saying the Food and Drug Administration didn't properly vet it, Bloomberg reports.

A former Obama administration official at the Department of Health and Human Services is going to work for KPMG.

David Hansell has been hired to lead the global Human/Social Services team at the tax, audit and advisory firm.

“As government action to address human and social services continues to be an important issue for many of our clients around the world, we’re extremely pleased to have David help lead our efforts in this key role,” John Herhalt, a KPMG global chairman, said in a statement announcing the hire.

The United States is rapidly losing high-tech jobs — including in the medical-device industry — to Asia amid "moribund" interest in science in this country, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Retail labs that provide medical tests without involving patients' doctors are causing concerns, Kaiser Health News reports. 

Afghan President Hamid Karzai is blaming Taliban resistance to vaccines after polio cases in that country tripled last year, the Boston Globe reports.

Comfort-food chef Paula Deen is now pushing diabetes drugs and healthy eating, leaving some fans befuddled, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Consumer testing by Consumers Union provides a foundation for regulatory and legislative efforts to make health insurance understandable.

U.S. obesity rates held steady in 2009-2010, with more than one-third of adults and almost 17 percent of youth falling into that category, according to the latest figures from the CDC.

North America's two top-paid CEOs in 2010 worked in healthcare, according to the latest pay survey from the research group GMI ratings.

John Hammergen, CEO of the pharmaceutical distributor and technology firm McKesson, made $145 million, according to GMI. Joel Gemunder, CEO of Omnicare — the nation's leading provider of medicines for seniors — made a reported $98 million.

Total realized compensation for CEOs in the S&P 500 rose by a median 36.5 percent in 2010, according to GMI. The report comes as "Occupy" demonstrators are protesting across the country against income inequality and Congress looks for ways to curb healthcare spending.

Walmart wants to lower healthcare costs by becoming "the largest provider of primary healthcare services in the nation," NPR and Kaiser Health News report.

Kaiser Health News takes a deeper look at Mitt Romney's Medicare plan.

Kansas is overhauling its Medicaid program through managed care, reports the Kansas City Star.

A U.S. district judge has appointed a mediator to quickly resolve outstanding lawsuits over GlaxoSmithKline's Avandia diabetes drug after the company agreed to pay $3 billion to resolve claims of illegal marketing, Bloomberg reports.

The American Academy of Pain Management says patients' medicine cabinets main source of opioid deaths.

The British drug company GlaxoSmithKline has agreed to pay $3 billion to settle U.S. investigations into its sales practices for numerous drugs, The New York Times reports.

The Personhood USA movement accused Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour of being in the pocket of the abortion drug industry after he questioned the wisdom of giving legal rights to fertilized eggs, The Huffington Post reports.

Public Citizen wants federal regulators to use their existing authority to enforce work-hour limits for doctors-in-training.

Hispanic immigrants become less healthy the longer they stay in America, Kaiser Health News reports.

Authorities grappling with Thailand's worst flooding in decades are now facing the potential spread of disease as contaminated waters spread deeper into Bangkok, The Wall Street Journal reports.