By Philip Klein on 3.3.09 @ 12:41PM
Nancy-Ann Min DeParle, who was appointed White House health czar,
took home at least $2.4 million in 2006 and 2007 from serving on
the corporate boards of health-care companies.
Nancy-Ann Min DeParle, who President Obama appointed as director
of the White House Office of Health Care Reform on Monday, took
home at least $2.4 million in 2006 and 2007 from serving on the
corporate boards of health-care companies whose businesses she
would be in a position to affect in her new position.
Since leaving the Clinton administration in 2001, DeParle has
made a fortune by serving on 10 boards in the health-care
industry in addition to her lucrative career as a managing
director at private equity firm CCMP Capital and a senior adviser
at JP Morgan Partners. Her journey from the public sector to the
private sector and back again would seem to represent the type of
revolving door relationship between Washington and corporate
America that President Obama pledged to put an end to during the
campaign and in an executive order.
Tom Daschle, who was originally supposed to hold the same "health
czar" position in addition to serving as Secretary of Health and
Human Services, came under fire after it was revealed
that he received $220,000 for giving speeches to health groups
over two years. But DeParle's ties to the health-care industry
run much deeper.
In just 2006 and 2007 alone, DeParle earned $376,140 in cash and
stock from Cerner Corp., according to a TAS analysis of
the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange
Commission. Cerner is a leader in the field of health information
technology, which the Obama administration has made a key part of
its health-care agenda. During the same time, she also was
awarded $377,319 by DaVita Corp., which specializes in kidney
dialysis, and $224,749 from medical device maker Boston
Scientific Corp.
In addition, she served on the board of Triad Hospitals from 2001
through its merger with Community Health Systems in 2007. When
the $54-per share deal was approved, she was paid
$1,059,205 for the stock options she held in Triad and she sold
an additional $349,164 in common stock, for a windfall of
$1,408,369.
This analysis only scratches the surface on her overall earnings
from corporate boards since 2001. The reason is that some
corporations did not specify how much each individual board
member received in compensation in their filings in a given year.
For instance, at medical device-maker Guidant Corp., where she
served from 2001 until its merger with Boston Scientific in 2006,
its filings specify that board members would have received a
$36,000 annual retainer, plus $3,000 for every meeting attended
in person and $1,000 for every telephone meeting. Without knowing
which meetings she attended, it's impossible to say precisely how
much she would have earned. In addition, at the time of the
Boston Scientific merger, she was able to exercise
options on 35,000 shares of Guidant stock, allowing her to
convert it into shares in the newly formed entity.
This analysis also leaves out any compensation she would have
received for her board work in 2008, because that information is
not yet available.
Her service also included stints on the board of Specialty
Laboratories Inc. from 2001-2004; pharmacy network Accredo Health
Group Inc. from 2002-2005; and diagnostic imaging company
Medquest Associates Inc. since 2002. In 2008, she also joined the
board of Legacy Hospital Partners Inc., which was formed by
former Triad executives and mail order pharmacist Medco Health
Solutions Inc. (which took over Accredo).
In her new role as the so-called "health czar" DeParle will be
tasked with leading the White House efforts on overhauling the
system. Asked yesterday whether her extensive board service would
present a problem, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs
said, "No. I mean, obviously, the White House has
confidence in her and her abilities as part of the health care
reform effort here." Gibbs said he anticipated she would leave
the boards she is currently serving on.
Daschle eventually withdrew his nomination over controversy
stemming from his failure to pay taxes in addition to the uproar
over his health-care industry income. As a cabinet nominee, he
would have faced Senate confirmation, but DeParle will not since
the Obama administration split Daschle's dual role, and tapped
Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius as Secretary of Health and Human
Services.
Shortly after taking office, President Obama issued a
widely-touted
executive order requiring appointees to take a pledge
declaring, "I will not for a period of 2 years from the date of
my appointment participate in any particular matter involving
specific parties that is directly and substantially related to my
former employer or former clients, including regulations and
contracts."
As her web of relationships to the medical industry becomes known
in greater detail, the administration will be pressed to explain
how DeParle could take on overhauling the entire health-care
system without violating the spirit, if not the letter, of
President Obama's ambitious ethics requirements.
