regional medical center

FL hospital staffers charged with $7M kickback scheme

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 06:59:55 -0400

A group of former employees of a Miami-based hospital have been charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, accused of involving the hospital in a kickback scheme with a medical supply company that since has gone into bankruptcy. Three former employees of Kendall Regional Medical Center were accused of participating in a scheme with medical supply company Pharmed in which the three helped place phony orders for supplies that were never delivered from January 2001 to June 2007. The HCA facility ended up paying $5.4 million to Pharmed for the never-delivered supplies, as well as $1.5 million to Allied Medical Products.

Before going bankrupt, Pharmed was the eighth-largest Hispanic-owned business in America, with $48 million in profit in 2003. It filed for bankruptcy last fall after several clients left, including HCA, which severed relations when it discovered the alleged kickback scheme.

To learn more about the charges:
- read this Miami Herald piece

Related Articles:
Surgical device maker faces kickback investigation
Readers weigh in on device-maker kickbacks

Prime Healthcare picks up three Tenet facilities

Mon, 02 Jun 2008 06:59:55 -0400

A growing but controversial hospital chain has agreed to acquire three Tenet hospitals, expanding its network of facilities that reject all forms of managed care contracts. Hospitals included in the deal include the 151-bed Encino campus of Encino-Tarzana Regional Medical Center, 167-bed Garden Grove Hospital Medical Center and 64-bed Dimas Community Hospital. Prime has closed on the Encino-Tarzana deal, but the other two deals await regulatory approval.

The deals fit Prime's pattern of acquiring financially troubled and underperforming hospitals. For example, the Encino facility lost more than $10 million in fiscal 2007, and the other two facilities' performances were "marginal," according to a Prime statement. Prime's chairman, cardiologist Dr. Prem Reddy, says that he plans to sink capital into the hospitals to help turn them around. If Prime's other deals are any indication, he'll also end up realigning the hospitals' service mix dramatically, in some cases low-profit service lines (such as psychiatric services) that, critics say, are needed in the communities the hospitals serve.

Perhaps the most controversial step Prime has taken with its acquired hospitals has been to cancel all managed contracts. However, as of March of this year, Prime signed a contract with Aetna across its network, which now will include 12 hospitals.

To learn more about the acquisition:
- read this Prime press release

Related Articles:
Hospital resists buyout by maverick Prime Healthcare
California hospital operator boots HMOs
Upstart CA hospital chain buys another facility
State stops acquisition by growing CA hospital chain

Group of hospitals joins BC of CA P4P program

Thu, 20 Mar 2008 07:59:57 -0400

A group of 23 hospitals have joined Blue Cross of California's new inpatient pay-for-performance program, which is structured to give the facilities adjustments to their inpatient fixed-payment rates if they achieve certain scores on quality, clinical processes and outcomes. To participate in the Quality-in-Sights Hospital Incentive Program, hospitals must submit quality data to the California Hospital Assessment and Reporting Task Force. Hospitals getting on board include USC University Hospital in Los Angeles, Irvine (CA) Regional Hospital and Medical Center, San Ramon (CA) Regional Medical Center and University Medical Center in Fresno. To date, there's been more P4P programs involving large medical groups than hospitals in most of the country, so I'm looking forward to see how hospitals fare here.

To learn more about the program:
- read this Modern Healthcare article (reg. req.)

Related Articles:
Pay for performance becoming business as usual. Report
Case study: MI groups make P4P dollars through IT use. Report
CMS program would base hospital pay on performance. Report
Medicare P4P results show care improvements. Report
Positive results for Medicare P4P pilot. Report
Exclusive: How to make P4P work. Interview

Patient death raises questions on agency nurse use

Tue, 11 Mar 2008 07:59:57 -0400

The death of a patient in a Plantation, FL emergency department has re-surfaced persistent questions over whether hospitals nationwide are creating quality problems by using fill-in "agency" nurses extensively. In this case, retired plumber William Fain, 80, was in the care of an agency nurse in the ED at Westside Regional Medical Center after suffering a seizure. The agency nurse caring for Fain, who was being taken to the ICU, was told to put up bedrails, lower the bed and check him frequently, but did none of these things, according to a suit filed by Fain's family. Fain fell out of bed, suffered brain damage and died two weeks after the incident.

Critics say that while it doesn't always result in severe injury or death, the fact that hospitals rely so heavily on agency nurses is a recipe for disaster, given that such nurses--even if top professional quality--can't pick up on a hospital's routines immediately or provide continuity of care. However, given the ongoing nursing shortage, which is only getting worse in Florida and elsewhere, hospitals sometimes have few alternatives, hospital executives note.

To learn more about this issue:
- read this South Florida Sun Sentinel article

Related Articles:
Maryland hospitals face nurse, professional shortage. Report
California nursing shortage looms. Report
Mentors dramatically improve nurse retention. Report
PA launches nurse training initiative. Report
Study says pay is key to solving nurse shortage. Report
New Orleans goes on international nurse hunt. Report

HCA accuses FL vendor of kickbacks

Wed, 31 Oct 2007 07:59:56 -0400

HCA this week has become the latest to pile onto Pharmed Group, accusing the formerly successful supply company of rigging the purchasing process at one of its hospitals to collect cash for never-delivered products. HCA accused Pharmed, which is now in bankruptcy proceedings, of collecting $3.5 million in orders for supplies it never delivered. The hospital chain's lawyers say Pharmed payments were initiated by two employees at HCA's Kendall Regional Medical Center, who later received kickbacks for their effort, according to the suit. HCA's accusations came out in a Pharmed Chapter 11 bankruptcy hearing. Pharmed ended up on the rocks, in part, when it lost its HCA supply contract earlier this year.

To learn more about HCA's charges:
- read this piece from The Miami Herald

Related Articles:
HCA moves gingerly to resolve debt. Report
HCA to pay $20 million to settle shareholder suits. Report
HCA profits fall, smacked down by debt payments. Report
$33B HCA sale approved by shareholders. Report
HCA posts hospital prices online. Report

Texas hospital demands identity of blogger critic

Sun, 08 Jul 2007 20:01:36 -0400

Fed up with accusations one of its hospitals has engaged in Medicare fraud and operational problems, a Texas hospital has gotten a judge to issue an order which will bare the identity of a persistent blogger critic. Nashville-based Essent Healthcare is forcing the Internet service provider hosting blog "The-Paris-site" to cough up the blog owner's name, not to mention the identities of several other people who posted critical follow-on comments. Essent says the blog has been lobbing unfair criticisms at its Paris Regional Medical Center since March 2005. It claims some of the posts are defamatory, and others disclose protected patient health information. The anonymous blogger has disputed this, arguing that no patient health information was disclosed, and that the comments are largely "feedback" which should be openly discussed.

To find out more about the suit:
- read this Computerworld piece

Related Article:
Doctor's blog kills malpractice defense. Report

Hospital building boom spikes in Arizona

Mon, 28 May 2007 20:01:34 -0400

Hospitals are pouring big bucks into expansions across the U.S., but the trend is particularly marked in Arizona, whose hospital infrastructure has fallen behind as the state has grown. Right now, the state only has two inpatient beds per 1,000 residents, compared with an average of 2.8 inpatient beds per 1,000 nationwide. In response, the state's hospitals have set plans for $3.3 billion worth of building over the next five years. The construction process will add about 2,900 beds across Arizona. Not only are metropolitan hospitals planning big-ticket expansions, even small rural hospitals like Safford, AZ-based Mount Graham Regional Medical Center are jumping in, struggling with substantial increases in traffic.

To learn more about this trend:
- read this article from The Arizona Republic

Related Articles:
California medical center plans $1.3B expansion. Report
Texas Children's plans $1.5B expansion. Report
Baylor recently announced plans to build its own teaching hospital. Article
Examining the hospital building boom. Editorial

NC bill would limit public hospital disclosures

Tue, 10 Apr 2007 20:01:36 -0400

Triggered by a newspaper's disclosure of details on the sale of a medical practice to a local hospital authority, a North Carolina state Senator has filed a bill which would make such contracts confidential. The newspaper, the Wilkes Journal-Patriot, had sued the Wilkes Regional Medical Center Hospital Authority to get details on a physician buyout contract, under which the medical center paid $650,000 to buy the assets of a local gastroenterologist's practice. The medical center had also agreed to pay the gastroenterologist a $750,000 annual salary to perform about 2,200 procedures per year. The medical center had argued that it needed to keep the details of such arrangements quiet if it was to compete with private healthcare providers, but the state's Supreme Court rejected that argument. Now, on request from public hospitals in the state, Senate Majority Leader Tony Rand (D) is attempting to block such disclosures through legislation.

To learn more about the bill:
- read this article from The News & Observer

British study U.S. P4P scheme

Mon, 26 Mar 2007 20:01:34 -0400

A group of top officials with the British National Health Service are visiting Cleveland Regional Medical Center to learn more about the hospital's pay-for-performance program. The British officials are hoping to pick up tips on how to better run its existing pay-for-performance program, which has been so successful that physician bonuses busted the program's budget during the first year. Cleveland Regional was a top performer in the first phase of the Medicare pay-for-performance pilot. The hospital--part of North Carolina-based Carolinas HealthCare System--did so well with its pay-for-performance participation that it it got $1.2 million in payments during the second year of the pilot.

To learn more about the British P4P visit:
- read this United Press International piece

Related Article:
Medicare P4P results show care improvements. Report
Positive results for Medicare P4P pilot. Report
Exclusive: How to make P4P work. Interview

Cardiologist sues to regain privileges

Tue, 07 Nov 2006 19:01:35 -0500

In a complicated spat involving contract disputes, a fight for high-margin services and long-standing bad blood between two competing hospitals, a Georgia cardiologist backed by one of the facilities is suing to regain his privileges at the other. Dr. John Madonna Jr. has sued Satilla Regional Medical Center of Waycross, GA, asking the courts to force Satilla to re-establish his privileges there. Madonna had formerly worked under a contract held by Baptist Specialty Physicians (BSP), which provides cardiology services at the hospital. When he left, Satilla suspended his privileges, maintaining that it had the right to do so since Madonna wasn't affiliated with BSP any more. Madonna, in turn, says that Satilla can't kick him out, as it already works with 12 other cardiologists who aren't affiliated with BSP.

What makes the dispute nasty is that Dr. Madonna's legal bills are being paid by competing hospital, Jacksonville, FL-based St. Vincent's Medical Center, which would like to grab as much cardiology patient volume as possible. I guess all's fair in love and contracting.

Learn more about the legal dispute:
- read this article in the Florida Times-Union

Related Articles:
Calif. anesthesiology group loses contract. Article
Surgery center accuses OSF Healthcare of antitrust activity. Article