Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Healthcare Buck Stops at Harry S. Truman’s Hometown

Healthcare Buck Stops at Harry S. Truman’s Hometown

Healthcare’s Supply Monopoly Meets Circuit Court in Independence Missouri

Independence, MO (PRWEB) June 7, 2006

A Missouri circuit court in Independence, Missouri refused to dismiss General Electric (GE) from a lawsuit seeking $450 million in damages over a repudiated contract with Medical Supply Chain, Inc. in June 2003. The ruling in Lipari v. General Electric, et al, Jackson County Missouri at Independence Case No. 0616-cv07421 was released on May 31, 2006.

Samuel Lipari, president of Medical Supply Chain, has alleged that GE broke a contract that provided capitalization for Medical Supply Chain’s entry into the $1.3 Trillion dollar hospital supply market. The contract involved the purchase of an office center and the buyout of a ten year lease left over from GE’s Transportation Division’s buyout of former Blue Springs, MO based Harmon Industries. The contract provided physical assets and operating capital needed by Medical Supply Chain after US Bancorp Piper Jaffray repudiated a similar agreement through the false pretext of the USA Patriot Act that involved escrow accounts for investor deposits. Mr. Lipari alleges that the contract was breached when GE’s healthcare product divisions discovered Medical Supply Chain was the web based electronic marketplace that GE’s CEO Jeffrey Immelt feared would bypass the industry’s monopolized distribution and pricing system.

In 2001, a US Bancorp Piper Jaffray study showed a web based electronic marketplace would reduce prices paid by hospitals by over $23 billion dollars annually. Under former CEO Jack Welch’s direction, GE created an electronic marketplace to counteract this competitive threat. Mr. Immelt has furthered GE’s control over hospital supplies by founding and participating in the GHX (Global Healthcare Exchange) cartel. On March 6, 2006 GE Capital financed GHX’s purchase of the highly controversial and publicly traded electronic marketplace Neoforma, exposed in the FW Weekly article “Hijacking at the Hospital” leaving Medical Supply Chain as the only web based marketplace for hospital supplies outside of the cartel.

The litigation over the obstruction of Medical Supply Chain’s entry into the market has been conducted in both Kansas and Western District of Missouri federal courts and in two Tenth Circuit Court appeals. The federal antitrust claims are presently in Kansas District Court at Kansas City, Kansas. The dispute over the contract between GE and Medical Supply Chain, Inc. was moved to the Circuit Court in Jackson County Missouri at Independence.

Upon learning he had prevailed over GE’s attempted dismissal, Samuel Lipari said “Harry Truman stood up against threats to our nation’s people and now finally we will be able to present evidence of what GE has done to prevent competition from making healthcare affordable for all Americans.” Samuel Lipari and Medical Supply Chain will continue to fight against artificially inflated healthcare supply costs that continue to threaten the viability of the Medicare and Medicaid programs, force employers to ship jobs overseas and weaken pension funds.

About Medical Supply Chain: Medical Supply Chain (MSC) is a worldwide provider of web-based supply chain collaboration solutions with an electronic marketplace serving health care communities and their trading partners. Privately held, the company was founded in May of 2000 with a mission to deliver enabling supply chain technology in health care. To learn more about Medical Supply Chain visit: http://www. MedicalSupplyChain. com (http://www. MedicalSupplyChain. com)

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