Chairman’s ouster pushed

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Thursday, Sept. 26, 2002 | 11:10 a.m.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- Richard Scrushy, founder and chairman of HealthSouth Corp., should resign to help the company rebound from a regulatory probe and a cut in Medicare payments for rehabilitation services, some investors said Wednesday.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is looking at Scrushy's July sale of 2.5 million HealthSouth shares. That makes him a liability for the biggest U.S. operator of rehabilitation hospitals, said investors holding the company's stock and debt.

The company said last week that the SEC is investigating whether HealthSouth was too slow to disclose that a Medicare rule would hurt profit. The government sent a letter to insurers on the matter in May; Scrushy said HealthSouth didn't know the impact of the reduction until mid-August.