Regionals

MIDDLETOWN, N.Y.—Orange Regional Medical Center sold and leased back its hospital campuses through the Community Foundation of Orange and Sullivan counties. The arrangement allows Orange Regional to continue operations at the campuses in Goshen and Middletown until moving into a new hospital in 2011. The New York State Department of Health had required the 343-bed hospital to sell the existing campuses to gain full approval of the project. The $10 million purchase of the hospitals was made possible through a $4 million gift and a $6 million loan from the Gerry Foundation. Orange Regional plans to eventually replace its two existing hospitals with a new hospital on a 61-acre site in Wallkill at a total project cost of more than $300 million.

ALBANY, N.Y.—Four New York ambulatory surgery centers reportedly waived out-of-pocket fees for members of the government-employee health plan and then covered some $8 million in additional costs by sending inflated charges to the state’s insurance administrator, UnitedHealthcare, according to audits released by the office of New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli. Auditors from DiNapoli’s office examined medical claims from January 2001 through December 2006, and recommended that Minnetonka, Minn.-based UnitedHealthcare recover the $8 million from the providers and that it work with the state’s Department of Civil Service to develop a plan to prevent this from occurring again. DiNapoli said in a news release that similar audits are already in progress. In the audits released Dec. 3, Napoli said that the Endoscopy Center of Long Island, Garden City, was overpaid $2.7 million; Capital Region Ambulatory Surgery Center, Albany, was overpaid $2.4 million; Digestive Health Center of Huntington (N.Y.) was overpaid $1.5 million; and Day-Op Center of Long Island, Mineola, was overpaid $1.4 million. UnitedHealthcare released a written statement saying that it would work with the state to pursue recovery of the money and that it was taking additional measures to ensure that no other providers in the New York State Health Insurance Program’s Empire Plan are doing the same things.

BROCKTON, Mass.—Bridgewater Goddard Park Medical Associates, a multispecialty physicians group, will become a part of the Brockton Hospital Corp.’s physician practice network as part of a plan to grow Brockton from a local to a regional provider with a network of physicians groups, according to information posted to Brockton’s Web site. The plan also includes changing Brockton’s name to Signature Healthcare and more closely linking 253-bed Brockton Hospital and its school of nursing with its four physicians groups. Details of the deal, including whether Brockton will purchase Bridgewater, will be formally announced early next year.

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