Howard Phanstiel, the former chief executive of PacifiCare Health Systems, now a unit of Minnesota’s UnitedHealth Group Inc., just gave a financial shot in the arm to his alma mater.
Phanstiel, a UnitedHealth executive vice president, gave $5 million to the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at the University of Syracuse. It’s the largest donation in the school’s 82-year history, according to the university.
Phanstiel received his bachelor’s from the Maxwell School in 1970 and a master’s a year later. He’s a member of the school’s advisory board.
The school is going to use the money to establish the Howard and Louise Phanstiel Chair in Strategic Management and Leadership. The chair is going to be part of the school’s department of public administration.
The Syracuse Standard newspaper quoted Mitchel Wallerstein, dean of the Maxwell School, as saying the person who fills the Phanstiel chair would explore leadership principles from the public and private sector and how those principles can be applied to managing public problems.
The donation is going to pay the chair’s salary and benefits and be used to support his or her research, including travel, meetings and possibly a graduate assistant to assist in research, according to the newspaper.
Maxwell officials are doing a national and international search to fill the chair.
Phanstiel reconnected with Syracuse about two years ago, Wallerstein said.
A longtime healthcare executive, Phanstiel is best known in Orange County as the man who took over PacifiCare in late 2000, when the Cypress-based managed care company was struggling with changes for health maintenance organizations.
Phanstiel pared unprofitable membership, added new plans and services and built up PacifiCare to the point where UnitedHealth shelled out more than $9 billion to buy it in late 2005.
Medicare Patient Data
Speaking of health plans, recent breaches of private health records belonging to Medicare Advantage health plan members are spurring calls for more government oversight.
The Government Accountability Office recently said Medicare needed to step up its oversight of how private contractors transmit health records. UnitedHealth’s PacifiCare is one of the leading players in Medicare HMO plans.
Regulators said data breaches most often happened when private contractors outsourced health records to other companies for processing. Figures from the GAO showed that 90% of Medicare contractors outsourced health records domestically last year.
The report also gave recommendations, including requiring Medicare Advantage providers to report privacy breaches to the government within 30 days of discovery. That requirement already exists for traditional Medicare programs.
Officials with the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services said that they’ve already entered into talks with Medicare HMO providers on ways to better safeguard health records, though the government does not have direct authority to require companies to report security breaches.
Skincare Company IPO
Obagi Medical Products Inc., a maker of skincare products in Long Beach, wants to raise up to $86.3 million in an initial public offering.
Obagi is looking to trade on Nasdaq under the ticker “OBGI.”
JP Morgan is the lead manager of Obagi’s offering, along with CIBC World Markets, Thomas Weisel Partners LLC and R.W. Baird & Co.
Obagi hasn’t set a time for the offering. In the company’s filing, it said it planned to use the proceeds for several purposes, including repaying debt and increasing research and development programs.
Founded in 1988, Obagi has 132 workers. The company is profitable, earning $9 million on sales of $65 million last year.
Obagi’s products tackle various skin issues. Its newest product line, the NuDerm Condition and Enhance Systems, is “designed to improve patient outcomes when used in conjunction with commonly performed cosmetic procedures such as laser resurfacing and Botox injections” from Irvine-based Allergan Inc.
Bits and Pieces:
AMDL Inc. of Tustin said its shareholders approved its buy of Jade Pharmaceuticals Inc. and its two Chinese subsidiaries. Jade just received Chinese regulatory approval for Ondansetron, a drug to treat nausea from chemotherapy UPTE-CWA Local 9119, which says it represents some 300 workers at UCI Medical Center in Orange, had an informational picket earlier this month at the hospital to call attention to what it calls “staffing shortages.” The union represents clinical social workers, pharmacists and clinical lab scientists at the University of California’s five medical centers and nine campus student health centers Institute for Healthcare Advancement in La Habra issued a call for presentations for its upcoming health literacy conference, which is scheduled for May. Information: www.iha4health.org … I-Flow Corp. of Lake Forest signed a contract with Amerinet, a St. Louis-based group purchasing group, to make On-Q pain relief devices available to Amerinet members Francisco Silva, vice president of research and development of PrimeCell Therapeutics LLC of Irvine, discussed his company’s germ cell reprogramming technology earlier this month at a conference in Vatican City held by Pontifical Academy for Life and the World Federation of Catholic Medical Associations. PrimeCell uses stem cells derived from adults, not embryos.
