Columbia/HCA to Require Ethics Officers

Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corp. is asking each of its about 340 hospitals to appoint an ethics officer from among top managers, as part of its effort to resolve a government probe and beef up compliance. The hospitals are each expected to name an ethics and compliance officer within the next week, Columbia spokesman Jeff Prescott said. The action is the work of Columbia’s new senior compliance officer, Alan Yuspeh. Yuspeh was named in October, a year into a government Medicare billing probe that has yielded indictments against three mid-level executives and forced out several top managers. Shares in Nashville-based Columbia fell 75 cents to close at $29.69 on the NYSE.