Cost concerns hold up Cottage-Sansum merger
It was the biggest celebration in Santa Barbara’s history. The 1889 Grand Carnival at the Lobero Theatre attracted more than 5,000 residents who donated $2,742 — about $73,000 in current dollars — to help build the area’s first hospital. The carnival fundraiser was the brainchild of a group of 50 women who set out Read More →
Health care prices under scrutiny in Sansum-Cottage merger
As the regulatory review of the proposed merger between Cottage Health System and Sansum Clinic stretches to the six-month mark, a recent federal court ruling points out key issues that arise when a dominant hospital system buys a major physician group. In an Idaho case decided earlier this year, the Federal Trade Commission intensely focused Read More →
Sansum-Cottage deal heads to FTC for review
The future of health care in South Santa Barbara County became considerably clearer in recent days, with the biggest merger in decades headed off for regulatory review and hiccups in the delivery of care through the state insurance exchange and to the poor largely resolved.
When the FTC calls: Phone on Hold founder shares story of his legal saga
For the past 14 months, Pete Turpel has lived a business owner’s worst nightmare. He carefully built up Phone on Hold Marketing Systems, which provides pre-recorded messages for firms to play while customers are on hold, over nearly three decades. And then last year, the Federal Trade Commission filed a lawsuit alleging that Turpel had Read More →
Phone firm pushes back against FTC
A Newbury Park-based company is vowing to fight charges by the Federal Trade Commission that it broke telemarketing rules by helping clients make so-called “robocalls,” violate the national “Do Not Call” registry and mask caller IDs. The FTC alleges the calls generated thousands of complaints from consumers. Peter Turpel, the founder of Phone On-Hold Marketing Read More →
