BILLINGS, Mont.—Not-for-profit Billings Clinic and RegionalCare Hospital Partners, a for-profit hospital company based in Brentwood, Tenn., formed a joint venture that seeks to draw on the operational expertise and financial resources of both organizations. “We don't think it's complicated,” said Dr. Nicholas Wolter, CEO of 263-bed Billings Clinic. “Billings Clinic is going to remain not-for-profit.” Billings Clinic will retain its current governance structure, which he described as a medical foundation model with a 250-physician medical group at its core.
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LOS ANGELES—Roseville, Calif.-based Adventist Health agreed to pay $14.1 million to resolve allegations that it improperly compensated physicians who referred patients to the system's White Memorial Hospital in Los Angeles. White Memorial also agreed to enter a five-year corporate integrity agreement with HHS' inspector general's office, the U.S. Justice Department said in a news release. The hospital, the government alleged, transferred medical supplies and other goods to physicians for less than fair-market value and paid physicians inflated rates for teaching services in its...
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Two Montana hospitals sponsored by the Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth Health System are paying federal authorities $4 million after an internal review turned up more than 100 potentially illegal arrangements for paying doctors. The two hospitals—206-bed St. Vincent Healthcare in Billings and 25-bed Holy Rosary Healthcare in Miles City—reported the potential problems directly to the U.S. attorney's office in Montana and negotiated settlements of alleged violations of the Stark law and False Claims Act.
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PALO ALTO, Calif.—Stanford Hospitals & Clinics embarked on the four-year construction of a state-of-the-art and seismically sound hospital. The hospital broke ground on a facility that will add 824,000 square feet to the existing hospital and expand inpatient capacity to 600 beds. The project is part of a $5 billion renewal project at the medical center, which also includes expansion of the Lucile Packard Children's Hospital. The organization is paying for the upgrades with hospital funds—including cash and about $600 million in bond debt—and philanthropy. A group of...
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OAKLAND, Calif.— The percentage of California employers that offer healthcare coverage to their employees has plummeted in the past decade. In 2012, 60% of California employers offered coverage to their employees, down from 71% in 2002, according to a survey by the California HealthCare Foundation. Coverage rates, though, varied significantly by company size. For example, 98% of California employers with at least 1,000 employees offered healthcare coverage last year, as did 97% of firms with 200 to 999 employees. On the other hand, only 49% of employers with between three and...
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Just months before the creation of a $4 billion health system, the two Roman Catholic hospital operators behind the deal have abandoned talks for now, citing disagreements over back-office functions.Discussions were suspended between 55-hospital Catholic Health Initiatives, based in Englewood, Colo., and PeaceHealth of Vancouver, Wash., which had sought to create an integrated health system spanning Oregon, Washington and Alaska. The new system would have included seven CHI hospitals and all eight of PeaceHealth's medical centers.
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LAS VEGAS—A Nevada jury ordered the state's largest health management organization to pay $500 million in punitive damages to three plaintiffs in a civil negligence lawsuit stemming from a Las Vegas hepatitis outbreak. Two companies—both subsidiaries of UnitedHealth Group—signed a low-bid contract with the physician who ran the clinic where the outbreak started, despite warnings that he sped through procedures and pinched pennies at his clinics so much that patients were at risk of contracting blood-borne diseases, attorneys for those suing the companies argued. They...
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SACRAMENTO, Calif.—A Democratic California state lawmaker introduced a package of bills to address an expected doctor shortage as the state prepares to insure millions of new patients under federal healthcare reforms. State Sen. Ed Hernandez said his bills would expand services that can be provided by nurse practitioners, optometrists and pharmacists in order to help alleviate a shortage of primary-care physicians, particularly in rural areas and inner cities dominated by minorities. Hernandez, an optometrist, said his bills would allow nurse practitioners to see Medicaid and...
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ORANGE, Calif.—St. Joseph Health and Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian, Newport Beach, Calif., reached a deal to create a new health system. Executives said some details were not yet final, but the transaction consolidates control over operations and strategy for five St. Joseph Hospitals and two Hoag hospitals under the new system, Covenant Health Network. Deborah Proctor, president and CEO of St. Joseph Health, said other details, such as whether St. Joseph and Hoag would jointly borrow for capital projects, had yet to be determined because executives delayed talks until...
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RENTON, Wash.—Providence Health & Services will have another physician as its president and CEO. Dr. Rod Hochman was promoted to lead the 26-hospital Catholic healthcare system. Hochman, 57, is one of two Providence group presidents. He will succeed Dr. John Koster starting July 1. In December, Koster, 62, announced his plans to retire at the end of 2013 after serving as president and CEO since 2003. Hochman told Modern Healthcare that this month he spent a week in Montreal meeting the system's founders, the Sisters of Providence. “It's an incredible organization,”...
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SAN DIEGO—Scripps Health entered hospice care as the area's biggest hospice provider continues to scale down its operations under bankruptcy protection. The not-for-profit San Diego Hospice laid off about a third of its employees after disclosing last year that it faced uncertainty under an ongoing Medicare audit. On Feb. 4, the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in San Diego. The company has closed its 23-bed inpatient facility—the only one of its kind in California—pending the outcome of the reorganization. Scripps Health President and CEO Chris Van Gorder said...
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FORT COLLINS, Colo.—The University of Colorado Health system broke ground Jan. 17 at the site of its new $11 million cancer center on the Harmony campus of its 238-bed Poudre Valley Hospital. The 30,000-square-foot outpatient facility is expected to be completed next year. The building will include an infusion center, clinical research facilities and a garden. Services are expected to include genetic counseling, radiation oncology and physical rehabilitation. “It will raise the bar on cancer care in northern Colorado and the Rocky Mountain region,” Kevin Unger, Poudre...
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California Gov. Jerry Brown is asking the state to put an additional $350 million toward Medi-Cal, the state's Medicaid program. But anyone cheered by the prospect, which was included in a $98 billion budget proposal this month and aimed at expanding eligibility for the program under the federal healthcare reform law, was soon deflated. Brown also intends to move forward with a disputed 10% cut to provider payments.It may take six months before primary-care physicians in the state see a Medicaid pay increase promised under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
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MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.— El Camino Hospital filed a lawsuit seeking to overturn a voter-approved measure that limits what the public hospital could pay its executives. Officials from the two-campus Silicon Valley hospital filed a complaint in Santa Clara Superior Court in San Jose. The hospital and the six executives whose pay would be affected if the measure goes into effect want the court to declare the initiative invalid, and they're seeking a preliminary injunction to block the cap pending a ruling. Voters in the El Camino Hospital District approved Measure M in November, with...
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St. Luke's Health System in Idaho quickly completed its contentious acquisition of the state's largest physician practice after a judge declined to block the move pending the outcome of a competitor's legal challenge.
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LOS ALTOS HILLS, Calif.—Ascension Health made a move into California with an affiliation agreement with six-hospital Daughters of Charity Health System, Los Altos Hills. The deal gives Ascension, St. Louis, its first presence in the Golden State. Terms of the agreement between the two Catholic groups weren't disclosed. DCHS and Ascension Health Alliance—the parent of Ascension Health—announced in March that they had signed a memorandum of understanding putting DCHS on the road to joining Ascension. “An affiliation agreement provides the necessary structure for...
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HELENA, Mont.—Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Montana has filed for regulatory approval for its proposed deal with Health Care Service Corp., which operates Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans in four other states. The insurer said in a news release that it submitted paperwork to the Montana Commissioner of Securities and Insurance as well as the Montana attorney general. Under the transaction, the companies will contribute about $120 million to set up a charitable foundation focused on improving quality and access to healthcare programs in Montana. Health Care Service Corp. will...
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Despite ongoing antitrust investigations by the state attorney general and the Federal Trade Commission, Idaho's largest healthcare provider, St. Luke's Health System, intends to move forward with plans to acquire Idaho's biggest physician practice.
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ASHLAND, Ore.—Dignity Health broke off talks with Ashland Community Hospital, the first hospital Dignity announced it was negotiating to acquire after rebranding itself in early 2012 and setting its sights on expanding nationwide. Neither side said why the deal fell apart, citing a confidentiality agreement. A six-month exclusive negotiating window between the hospital and Dignity, a San Francisco-based health system, began in April. However, according to a Dignity news release, “the two organizations were not able to reach an agreement on the final closing conditions for...
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FORT COLLINS, Colo.—Banner Health, a Phoenix-based system, is acquiring a 25- to 30-acre property in the southern end of Fort Collins and has submitted “conceptual plans” to city officials about the type of medical facilities that could be developed on the site. “The submission of the development plan for review and approval is a part of the Banner Health due diligence stage of the land-acquisition process for a long-term project,” Jim Ferando, Banner Health Western Region president, said in a news release. “We have not decided upon any specific...
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