HealthSouth Corp. is headed back to the Big Board.
The medical services provider has been trading over the counter for the past three and a half years after disclosures about its $2.7 billion accounting fraud led to its delisting. The fraud led to the downfall of five separate CFOs at Healthsouth, a story chronicled in a CFO magazine feature article, “Keeping Secrets.”
HealthShouth’s listing is expected to be restored on October 26, according to a statement by Chairman Jon Hanson.
In the regulatory filing, which contained planned remarks for Wednesday’s annual meeting, Hanson also said the trial judges who are handling several lawsuits against the company have entered preliminary orders approving a settlement between the lead plaintiffs, the company, and the company’s insurance carriers.
The final hearings on these settlements have been set for January 8 and January 9, 2007. “These settlements represent the last of the company’s major pending litigation,” Hanson stated.
HealthSouth is one among a number of high-profile fraud cases that will wind up defining the early years of the new millennium. It fared much better than the other rogue companies, however. Enron and Adelphia, for example, are still in bankruptcy.
Earlier this week, however, a judge approved sending Adelphia’s Chapter 11 plan to creditors for a vote, according to the Associated Press.
WorldCom has emerged from the largest bankruptcy ever filed, under the name MCI. It was subsequently bought by Verizon.