Copyright 2000 The Washington Post
The Washington
Post
December 14, 2000, Thursday, Final Edition
SECTION: FINANCIAL; Pg. E02
LENGTH: 1207 words
HEADLINE:
BUSINESS IN BRIEF
BODY:
Contraceptives and Insurance
It's against
federal law for employers to exclude contraceptives from their
health insurance plans when they cover other preventive
treatments, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said yesterday. The
decision directly affects only two women who complained to the commission, but
it has implications for millions of others whose health
insurance plans exclude birth-control pills, diaphragms and
other forms of prescription contraceptives. Specifically, the
EEOC said that excluding contraceptives is a violation of the
1978 Pregnancy Discrimination Act, which requires equal treatment of women
"affected by pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions," in all
aspects of employment, including fringe benefits.
HCA to Plead Guilty,
Pay $ 95.3 Million
HCA, the nation's biggest hospital chain, has agreed
to plead guilty to health-care fraud and pay fines and penalties of $ 95.3
million, under a settlement agreement with the Department of Justice that is due
to be announced today. The settlement is based on charges that HCA conspired to
defraud government health-care programs, including Medicare, by making false
statements, paying kickbacks to doctors and submitting false bills. The
settlement culminates a five-year-old case that accused HCA of a "systemic"
conspiracy to defraud the government. MORE NEWS
Ford said it is delaying
the introduction of the 2002 Explorer by several weeks to ensure that the
company's signature sport-utility vehicle is not plagued by defects or recalls.
The world's second-biggest automaker said it began building the vehicles but
won't ship them to dealers until mid- to late February. The decision comes after
dealers this month put pressure on the automaker to resolve problems before new
or redesigned vehicles arrive in showrooms. The company's new small SUV, the
Escape, has been recalled five times since its introduction in August for
problems ranging from steering-wheel nuts to speed-control cables and fuel
lines.
Whirlpool plans to cut as many as 6,000 jobs, or 10 percent of
its workforce, and said fourth-quarter profit will miss analysts' estimates
because appliance sales fell and costs rose. The appliance maker will take $ 300
million to $ 350 million in charges against next year's earnings, spokesman
Christopher Wyse said.
Northwest Airlines had said it would never happen
again after more than 6,000 passengers were trapped in planes at the Detroit
airport for more than eight hours during a 1999 snowstorm. But during Detroit's
worst winter storm since then, 139 passengers bound for Miami say they were
stuck in one plane and then another for about seven hours during mechanical and
weather delays Monday. The entire ordeal, including two breaks in the terminal,
lasted just over nine hours. A few frustrated passengers with cell phones called
911 and demanded that someone get them off the plane, passengers said. Northwest
officials said the incident was isolated, and they quickly tried to compensate
the passengers with flight vouchers and cash.
General Electric said it
expects Department of Justice today to announce an antitrust review of its $ 54
billion purchase of Honeywell. GE called the move "not unexpected" and said it
still expects to close the deal in the first quarter of 2001.
George
Becker, 72, president of the United Steelworkers of America since March 1994,
will resign Feb. 28, according to an internal memo circulated to the union's
nearly 750,000 members. According to the memo, Leo Gerard, secretary-treasurer
of the union, has been chosen to succeed Becker.
Lucent Technologies,
the troubled phone-equipment giant, may be a takeover target with its shares
trading near a three-year low, Merrill Lynch analyst Michael Ching wrote to
clients. Though few companies could afford Lucent because it is so large, Lucent
may be attractive to a European maker of telecommunications equipment that lacks
a large share of the U.S. market, Ching said. He declined to speculate on
potential suitors. He also said an acquirer could recoup nearly the entire
purchase price by selling Lucent's microelectronics group, which Lucent wants to
spin off.
MasterCard International will begin issuing "smart cards" in
the United States, joining American Express and Visa in trying to popularize the
credit cards, which have imbedded programmable computer chips. The new cards
will be available to banks and other institutions worldwide starting in January.
The cards are intended primarily for online shopping.
Negotiators for
United Airlines and the International Association of Machinists announced they
were taking a brief recess to review their latest bargaining proposals. Sources
close to the talks said they did not expect the recess to last very long. The
two sides reported progress in the talks, which are reported to be down to wage
issues, with most other contract issues resolved. The talks involve United's
15,000 mechanics. Meanwhile, a federal judge refused to issue a temporary
injunction barring United mechanics from taking part in a work slowdown, saying
it would "serve no useful purpose."
A hacker infiltrated an Internet
company's database of credit-card numbers and posted them online in a failed
extortion attempt. The FBI has launched an investigation into the attempt
against Los Angeles-based Creditcards.com, which processes credit-card
transactions for online companies. More than 55,000 card numbers were swiped
from Creditcards.com and later posted online. The Web site with the numbers,
which went up when the extortion fee was not paid, has since been taken down,
the FBI said.
Enron, the world's largest energy trader, named its
president and chief operating officer, Jeffrey Skilling, as chief executive,
succeeding Kenneth Lay, who will remain chairman. Lay, 58, has been chairman and
CEO since February 1986. Skilling, 47, joined Enron in 1990 and and became
Enron's president and chief operating officer in 1996. The management changes
will be effective Feb. 12.
LOCAL BUSINESS
The U.S. Army will
announce today that it is awarding a $ 453 million, five-year contract to
PricewaterhouseCoopers to manage a new program that will allow 80,000 soldiers
to earn college degrees over the Internet. Army University Access Online--part
of an intensified effort to boost recruitment--will be managed from
PricewaterhouseCoopers' Dulles-based government consulting offices. D.C.-based
Blackboard Inc. will serve as a subcontractor for the project, providing the
online framework for the college courses that soldiers will take from their
far-flung bases. Northern Virginia Community College and Anne Arundel Community
College are among the 29 colleges from which they will be able to obtain
degrees. The program will start in January at Army bases in Georgia, Kentucky
and Texas.
EARNINGS
General Mills said fiscal second-quarter
profit rose 4.6 percent because sales of snacks and yogurt increased. Net income
at the maker of Cheerios cereal and Yoplait yogurt rose to $ 202.7 million, or
70 cents a share, from $ 193.7 million, or 62 cents, a year earlier. Sales in
the quarter ended Nov. 26 rose 4.3 percent, to $ 1.9 billion from $ 1.82
billion.
LOAD-DATE: December 14, 2000
