Coram Healthcare Corp

Coram Healthcare Corp. said Wednesday that it plans to move to Boulder, Colo., within a year and build a headquarters there that will be staffed by 60 to 80 new employees. Coram, which specializes in providing intravenous drug remedies to patients at their homes, now has only four employees in its Newport Beach headquarters. The company was formed earlier this year in a merger among four companies, including Ontario-based Curaflex Health Services.

* Aetna Inc. said that a federal court has dismissed claims of fraud and other allegations against its U.S. Healthcare unit, the largest U.S. managed-care company with about 29 million members. The suit, brought by Coram Healthcare Corp., involved Coram's agreement to provide home health-care services to Aetna U.S. Healthcare members, Aetna said. A spokesperson for Coram was not available for comment. In a ruling in U.S.

James M. Sweeney, who engineered the March sale of McGaw Inc. to Ivax Corp., is taking his recently formed health-care company to Denver at the end of the month as it sheds 590 employees--or 21% of its 2,800-member work force--from facilities across the country. The layoffs at Coram Healthcare Corp., formed July 11 in a four-way merger Sweeney put together, are part of a broad restructuring that includes closing 83 facilities and taking a third-quarter pretax charge of $138.1 million.

A Denver health-care company is considering making a bid for Apria Healthcare Group Inc., the Costa Mesa home health care provider that is seeking a buyer. Coram Healthcare Corp. is looking at Apria, even though Apria is the larger of the two home health-care companies, said Richard Smith, Coram's chief financial officer.

In a settlement underscoring the government's commitment to regulate physicians' financial ties to private health-care providers, a unit of a Newport Beach home-infusion company has agreed to pay $500,000 to end a two-year investigation. The agreement between T2 Medical, an Atlanta company that supplies intravenous drugs and nutrients to patients in their homes, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services was filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Atlanta.

Merger to Create Health Care Power: T2 Medical Inc., Curaflex Health Services Inc., Healthinfusion Inc. and Medisys Inc. said they will merge to become the second-largest U.S. home infusion company. The new company, called Coram Healthcare Corp., would have combined revenue of $500 million and a combined market value of $550 million.

Integrated Health Services Inc. dropped its $551.5-million bid to acquire Coram Healthcare Corp., scuttling plans to create one of the largest U.S. home-health-care companies. The decision was made in part because of a disagreement over litigation tied to Coram's 1995 acquisition of a Caremark International Inc. unit, Coram said. . . . The Federal Trade Commission has opened an inquiry into whether ads by Miller Brewing Co., a unit of Philip Morris Cos.

A Denver health-care company is considering making a bid for Apria Healthcare Group Inc., the Costa Mesa home health care provider that is seeking a buyer. Coram Healthcare Corp. is looking at Apria, even though Apria is the larger of the two home health-care companies, said Richard Smith, Coram's chief financial officer.

Integrated Health Services Inc. dropped its $551.5-million bid to acquire Coram Healthcare Corp., scuttling plans to create one of the largest U.S. home-health-care companies. The decision was made in part because of a disagreement over litigation tied to Coram's 1995 acquisition of a Caremark International Inc. unit, Coram said. . . . The Federal Trade Commission has opened an inquiry into whether ads by Miller Brewing Co., a unit of Philip Morris Cos.

Integrated Health Services Inc. announced Monday that it plans to buy Coram Healthcare for $655 million, creating the nation's second-largest home health company. The combined company, which would keep the Integrated Health name, would operate more than 700 home health branch locations in 44 states, including California. Coram shareholders would get stock valued at about $280 million, and Integrated Health would also assume Coram's debt and other financial obligations, valued at $375 million.

Coram Healthcare Corp. has agreed to acquire Lincare Holdings Inc. in a $1-billion stock deal that would give Coram a big presence in the home respiratory market, the companies said Tuesday. Denver-based Coram said it is the nation's largest provider of home infusion therapy and that Lincare is the second-largest provider of home respiratory therapy. Under the deal, Lincare stockholders would receive 1.54 shares of Coram common stock for each share of Lincare.

Abbey Healthcare Group's stock gained 3.6% Tuesday amid reports that the Costa Mesa home health-care provider is in talks to be acquired by Coram Healthcare Corp. Abbey's stock rose 87.5 cents a share to close at $25.50 in Nasdaq trading. Neither Abbey nor Coram, based in Denver, would comment on the rumor, and analysts who cover the two companies said they were unaware of any discussions. But some said there are reasons to think that an acquisition might be in the works.

In what could be an important precedent for the federal government in its efforts to enforce anti-kickback laws in the medical industry, a unit of a Newport Beach home infusion company said Monday that it has agreed to pay $500,000 to end a federal probe of its financial relations with doctors. To settle fraud charges brought by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, T2 Medical Inc., an Atlanta-based unit of Coram Healthcare Corp.

Abbey Healthcare Group's stock gained 3.6% Tuesday amid reports that the Costa Mesa home health-care provider is in talks to be acquired by Coram Healthcare Corp. Abbey's stock rose 87.5 cents a share to close at $25.50 in Nasdaq trading. Neither Abbey nor Coram, based in Denver, would comment on the rumor, and analysts who cover the two companies said they were unaware of any discussions. But some said there are reasons to think that an acquisition might be in the works.

* Aetna Inc. said that a federal court has dismissed claims of fraud and other allegations against its U.S. Healthcare unit, the largest U.S. managed-care company with about 29 million members. The suit, brought by Coram Healthcare Corp., involved Coram's agreement to provide home health-care services to Aetna U.S. Healthcare members, Aetna said. A spokesperson for Coram was not available for comment. In a ruling in U.S.

In a settlement underscoring the government's commitment to regulate physicians' financial ties to private health-care providers, a unit of a Newport Beach home-infusion company has agreed to pay $500,000 to end a two-year investigation. The agreement between T2 Medical, an Atlanta company that supplies intravenous drugs and nutrients to patients in their homes, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services was filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Atlanta.