Medication Nation

First they make a crap-ton of money:

Joey Jacobs, the CEO of Psychiatric Solutions, will earn a base salary of $1.5 million this year, up 20 percent from 2007. He also stands to earn a substantially bigger bonus, option and restricted stock payments than last year, cementing his place as one of Middle Tennessee’s highest-paid executives.

In its proxy statement filed this afternoon, Psych Solutions (Ticker: PSYS) details the compensation packages of Jacobs and his leadership team. Jacobs, who co-founded the Franklin-based company in 1997, pocketed cash, options and restricted shares worth $5.1 million last year, up almost 20 percent from 2006.

That number that included $1.2 million in salary and more than $1.5 million in non-equity bonus payouts, which are based primarily on the company’s EBITDA and earnings per share.

Shares of Psych Solutions fell 13 percent last year, ending a stellar run that took them from less than $5 in the spring of 2003 to $37 at the end of 2006. Year to date, they’re down another 3 percent.

For 2008, Jacobs can earn up to $2 million – 133 percent of his base salary – in bonuses. He also will have the chance to earn 125,000 options and 100,000 restricted shares this year. Both those numbers are up from 60,000 in 2007.

Money management giant Fidelity Investments increased its holdings in LifePoint Hospitals by more than 2.5 million shares during the first quarter.

The Boston-based company now owns a shade over 7 million LifePoint shares, or 12.3 percent of the hospital company (Ticker: LPNT). At the end of 2007, those numbers were 4.4 million and 8.2 percent, respectively.

On the flip side, Fidelity slashed its stake in BioMimetic earlier this year, dumping more than half of the 2.7 million shares it owned. Its stake in the Franklin biotech (Ticker: BMTI) now stands at 6.8 percent.

http://www.nashvillepost.com/news

Joey Jacobs, CEO of PSI Psychiatric Solutions plays to win. This guy is dropping checks like Hollywood Santa Claus on Christmas! There is $46,150 in contributions for the 2008 campaign alone! Don’t skip this, there are some very interesting presidential finds towards the bottom, including the McCain Palin ticket in 2007 which I find interesting since it wasn’t official until last month:

http://www.newsmeat.com

TENN POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE INC (TENN PAC)
$5,000
primary 02/14/08

FEDERATION OF AMERICAN HOSPITALS PAC
$5,000
primary 02/07/08

NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF PSYCHIATRIC HEALTH SYSTEMS POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE (NAPHS/PAC)
$5,000
primary 02/06/08

RICHARDSON, BILL (D)
President
RICHARDSON FOR PRESIDENT INC.
$1,150
primary 06/29/07

COOPER, JAMES H. S. (D)
House (TN 05)
COOPER FOR CONGRESS COMMITTEE
$2,300
primary 06/21/07

ROMNEY, MITT ®
President
ROMNEY FOR PRESIDENT INC.
$4,600
primary 04/19/07

ROMNEY, MITT ®
President
ROMNEY FOR PRESIDENT INC.
$-2,300
primary 04/19/07

NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF PSYCHIATRIC HEALTH SYSTEMS POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE (NAPHS/PAC)
$5,000
primary 04/12/07

MCCAIN AND SARAH H. PALIN, JOHN S. ®
President
JOHN MCCAIN 2008 INC.
$2,300
primary 02/28/07

GORE, AL (D)
President
GORE 2000 INC
$1,000
primary 09/27/99

GORE, AL (D)
President
GORE 2000 INC
$1,000
primary 09/27/99