The 10 Dumbest Things in Health Care This Year

Editor's Note: This year was a particularly absurd one for the health care industry. In light of that, we've expanded on our popular "Five Dumbest Things on Wall Street" to offer our "10 Dumbest Things in Health Care This Year." Part one examines the blunders of five big-cap names. Stay tuned for part two, which looks at the missteps of smaller companies.

1. Caremark's Comedy of Errors

Caremark (CVS Quote) spent the first half of the year with egg on its face.

This February, in fact, Delaware Chancellor William Chandler -- charged with overseeing the controversial CVS-Caremark merger -- actually compared Caremark's board to Humpty Dumpty. Curiously, Chandler noted, the board had fashioned the deal as a merger of equals while including the lucrative change-of-control payments that are normally triggered by an actual buyout.

Stated Chandler: "As Alice's cantankerous egg puts it, 'When I make a word do a lot of work like that ... I always pay it extra.'" ...