Prime Healthcare Services has entered into a deal to buy another hospital from Community Health Systems, the second this month.
The Ontario, Calif.-based chain will buy 85-bed Dallas Regional Medical Center in Mesquite, Texas, an asset that Community picked up in its $3.9 billion acquisition of Health Management Associates.
After the deal, Community will have 17 hospitals in Texas while Prime will pick up its fourth. In the Dallas area, Prime already owns Dallas Medical Center and a physicians group.
Franklin, Tenn.-based Community this month said it would sell Riverview Regional Medical Center in Gadsden, Ala., to Prime. The hospital is one of two that Community needed to divest to gain antitrust approval for its HMA deal, which closed last January.
Prime has been at the center of a string of transactions in the fourth quarter. Last week, the chain disclosed a deal to buy a Las Vegas medical center, North Vista Hospital, from Iasis Healthcare. It also agreed to buy two Missouri hospitals from Ascension Health: St. Joseph Medical Center in Kansas City and St. Mary's Medical Center in Blue Springs, which operate as Carondelet Health.
Finally, Prime is seeking approval to buy six-hospital Daughters of Charity Health System in Los Altos, Calif., in a deal that has received significant pushback from the Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West as well as a number of elected officials.
Prime received a bit of good news Monday as a California Superior Court jury sided in its favor in a case involving whether it violated a patient's privacy by sharing her medical records with the media and hospital employees.
Prime's Shasta Regional Medical Center had argued that the patient had already waived her rights (PDF) under HIPAA when she herself allowed her records to be used as part of a negative story about Prime that was widely publicized. Prime argued that it made the records available to defend itself.
The chain had already agreed to pay $275,000 to settle a federal case on the issue. California regulators also had fined the company $95,000, which Prime vowed to appeal.
Follow Beth Kutscher on Twitter: @MHbkutscher
