Cogent Healthcare Inc. of Irvine is on the lookout for a new chief executive.
Cogent provides hospitalists,doctors who solely work in hospitals,and supporting services such as data management.
As interim chief executive, Cogent appointed William Hamburg, a veteran healthcare executive whose resume includes a stint at HealthSouth Corp. Hamburg replaced Alan Puzarne, who resigned.
Cogent said Hamburg would remain as the company’s chief executive until a permanent replacement is found. In a statement, the company’s board said that Hamburg’s experience made him “well-qualified” to lead it through its next growth phase.
“As with many entrepreneurial companies, this growth requires the addition of new management and vision to ensure that strategic and operational objectives are achieved,” Cogent said.
Hamburg’s background also includes serving as president of Surgical Care Affiliates, a $1.2 billion company that was among one of the country’s first outpatient surgical center chains.
Puzarne, a former executive at FHP International Inc., now part of Cypress-based PacifiCare Health Systems Inc., became Cogent’s chief executive in 2001. He came to Cogent from Blue Shield of California, where he had been senior vice president and chief executive for its commercial health plans.
Cogent, a privately held company, has raised more than $35 million in venture capital funding since its 1994 inception. Its investors include Versant Ventures, which has an office in Newport Beach. The company primarily operates in the Southern and Eastern U.S.
Medicare Defibrillator Coverage
Irvine-based Cardiac Science Inc. and some of its rivals could gain from a decision by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services on automated external defibrillator coverage.
Medicare officials said last week that about 500,000 Medicare beneficiaries could receive coverage for the machines, which deliver tiny, life-saving shocks to hearts in cardiac arrest.
Medicare could spend some $2 billion from the coverage, which comes with a caveat,participants must agree to release details about their cases to a database shared by hospitals.
About 450,000 Americans die each year from sudden cardiac arrest. Sudden cardiac death is believed to account for half of all coronary heart disease deaths.
Medicare already has covered defibrillators for patients who possibly have fatal heart rhythm problems. In published reports, officials said they decided to expand the coverage in part because scientific studies have suggested that defibrillators save the lives of people who are at risk of, but haven’t yet suffered, such heart episodes.
In particular, Medicare officials said their agency paid close attention to a study published in January in the New England Journal of Medicine. That study indicated that implantable defibrillators could save lives in people who were at risk for ventricular fibrillation, or potentially fatal heart fluttering.
Besides Cardiac Science, other defibrillator makers include Medtronic Inc. of Minneapolis, which has a heart valve plant in Santa Ana, St. Paul, Minn.-based St. Jude Medical Inc. and Guidant Corp. of Indianapolis, which has a plant just over the county line in Temecula.
Medsphere Funding
Medsphere Systems Corp., an Aliso Viejo medical software company, has raised $7.5 million in a second round of venture funding.
Azure Capital Partners of San Francisco led the round and joined prior investors Thomas Weisel Venture Partners of Palo Alto and Wasatch Venture Fund of Salt Lake City.
Medsphere also named Larry Augustin, previously an Azure venture partner, as chief executive.
Augustin succeeds Steve Shreeve, a Medsphere cofounder who becomes chief technical officer.
Shreeve and brother Scott started Medsphere in 2001. Scott Shreeve is Medsphere’s chief medical officer.
Medsphere offers software used to manage clinical, financial and administrative data for hospitals, clinics and doctors. It is based on an “open source” program dubbed VistA and developed by the Department of Veterans Affairs. Medsphere’s version is called OpenVista.
Compliance Services
Jumping on the Patriot Act, TC3 Health LLC of Costa Mesa, released a tracking service for healthcare payers.
TC3’s tracking service, called OFACsecure, helps enforce provisions of the Patriot Act that prohibit American insurance underwriters, brokers, primary insurers, reinsurers and citizen employees of foreign firms from making or receiving any contribution of funds, goods or services for the benefit of “specially designated nationals and blocked persons” under the federal anti-terrorism laws.
TC3 offers services that electronically integrates healthcare claim transaction systems with external loss control programs. The company was founded in 2000.
Bits and Pieces:
PacifiCare Health Systems said its SignatureFreedom, the company’s entry into the “consumer-directed” health plan sector, had reached the 85,000-member mark as it approached its 18th month on the market Dr. Keith Wilson, chief executive of Talbert Medical Group, Costa Mesa, is a new member of the California Association of Physician Groups’ 2005 executive committee.
