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Article brought to you by Blue Cross and the American Medical Association. Pay no attention to the cartels behind the author. "Glenn A. Melnick, PhD Title Blu

• tzs 8y ago
  I think you may be confused a bit here. Did you by any chance think that "Blue Cross of California Chair in Healthcare Finance" means that he holds a position at Blue Cross? It doesn't. In 1994 Blue Cross gave $2.5 million to the University of Southern California to endow a chair. The way an endowed chair works is that donation is logically kept separate from the rest of the university's endowment, and the earnings from that separate endowment go toward the salary of whatever professor holds the chair. Other than having part (or all, depending on how much the endowment earns) of their pay come from that instead of from the general university budget there is little or no difference between a professor holding an endowed chair and one who does not. (Sometimes a donor might specify that there will be some extras, like funding for an assistant). The donor has no involvement after the initial donation, other than their name is on the chair (well, not always their name...someone can endow a chair and name it after someone else) and the title of whoever holds it. In particular, the donor gets no financial leverage over the holder of the chair. I have no idea where you got the American Medical Association connection from.