It looks like several years of bad press might force a name change at HealthSouth.

CEO Jay Grinney toldd analysts yesterday that a new name might be in HealthSouth’s future, to separate it from its past.

“We are evaluating if a name change is warranted, given the extent to which our name has been tarnished.”

With founder and former CEO Richard Scrushy still fighting legal troubles in advance of civil lawsuits, keeping the HealthSouth name out of negative articles is beyond impossible.

Of course, it might also have something to do with bigger-than-expected first-quarter losses.

Either way, you know you’ve hit a milestone in reputation management when it’s easier to scrap the brand with more than two decades of investment and start completely over. That’s also not to say that the name change will stick. Monsanto tried it years ago, and a lot of people still use that name instead of the newer “Solutia.”

Any suggestions for a new name?