MEDPARTNERS: Bankruptcy Judge Approves $10 Million Life- Preserver

      Preventing what state regulators say would be a "meltdown" for MedPartners Provider Network Inc., U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Barry Russell yesterday approved nearly $10 million in payments to hospitals and medical groups affiliated with the troubled plan. The Los Angeles Times reports that many providers were "threatening to withhold their services unless they received their March capitation payments" from MedPartners. Eugene Froelich, the state-appointed conservator of MedPartners, said in court documents that the funds were needed "to best protect the enrollees ... and (to) avoid a meltdown of the health care delivery network." Attorneys for several HMOs "supported Froelich's emergency motion," the Times reports (Majaraj, 3/25).