MedPartners

MedPartners Inc. was a public health care company founded in 1993 in Birmingham. The firm was founded by HealthSouth's Richard Scrushy and Larry House as a Physician Practice Management (PPM) company. House served as chairman, president and CEO.

The company's primary division was headed by Lynn Massingale, founder of TeamHealth in Knoxville, Tennessee, which was one of MedPartners' first acquisitions. The company grew rapidly over the next few years by acquiring other PPM networks, mostly through stock swaps. Notable acquisitions included Mullikin Medical Enterprises for $414 million, Pacific Physician Services for $343 million, Caremark International of Northbrook, Illinois for $2.5 billion, and InPhyNet Medical Management of Fort Lauderdale, Florida for $450 million. MedPartners briefly reigned as the largest PPM company in the United States.

The CareMark acquisition brought with it a number of rehabilitative hospitals and a major Prescription Benefit Management (PBM) operation. MedPartners sold the hospitals to HealthSouth. In late 1997 MedPartners' attempted to merge with another fast-growing PPM company, PhyCor of Nashville, Tennessee. The failure of that bid resulted in a reported net loss to the company's shareholders of $800 million. House resigned and was replaced by Scrushy on an interim basis. In 1999 Edwin "Mac" Crawford took over as chairman, president and CEO. He announced that MedPartners would refocus on its PBM business and sell off its PPM network.

MedPartners changed its name to Caremark Rx in 2000. Scrushy sold his remaining shares and left the board a year later. Caremark Rx moved its corporate headquarters from Birmingham to Nashville, Tennessee in 2003. It merged with rival AdvancePCS in 2004.

On March 16, 2007 Caremark Rx merged with CVS to form the CVS Caremark Corporation, which is headquartered in Woonsocket, Rhode Island.

External Links

• CVS Caremark website

References

• Sharpe, Anita (January 22, 1997) "MedPartners to Buy InPhyNet For $450 Million in Stock Deal" The Wall Street Journal
• "Caremark Rx". (March 17, 2007) Wikipedia - accessed March 19, 2007