Content area
Full Text
Michael Singer, founder of physician software vendor Medical Manager Corp., has resigned from WebMD Corp., which acquired the company in September 2000. He served as an executive vice president, head of research and chief software architect in Web-MD's Practice Services division. Elmwood Park, N.J.-hased WebMD will pay severance, offer stock options and continue to pay Singer's health insurance coverage on the condition that he is cleared of wrong-doing in connection with financial irregularities that occurred at Medical Manager before WebMD acquired it. As part of a U.S. Justice Department investigation, three former WebMD employees who previously worked at Medical Manager have pled guilty to fraudulent accounting practices that artificially inflated quarterly revenue at Medical Manager from 1997 until at least five quarters after WebMD bought it. WebMD on Jan. 10 announced those guilty pleas and also said a special committee of its board was investigating whether senior management of Medical Manager and elsewhere in the company engaged in improprieties. If the company's special committee determines Singer was involved in accounting irregularities, he will forfeit the severance pay-including what he already received-plus stock options and his insurance coverage, according to a WebMD filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.