Prime Healthcare makes deal for CHS hospital in Texas, and other news

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, a facility that Community picked up in its $3.9 billion acquisition of Health Management Associates.

Following the deal, Community will have 17 hospitals in Texas while Prime will pick up its fourth.

Franklin, Tenn.-based Community said this month that it would sell Riverview Regional Medical Center in Gadsden, Ala., to Prime. Riverview is one of two hospitals that Community needed to divest to gain antitrust approval for its HMA deal, which closed last January.

Prime has been involved in a string of fourth-quarter transactions. 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 together as Carondelet Health.

Prime is also seeking approval to buy six-hospital Daughters of Charity Health System in Los Altos, Calif., a deal that has received significant pushback from the Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West as well as elected officials. —Beth Kutscher

Follow Beth Kutscher on Twitter: @MHbkutscher

The former chief financial officer of a Texas hospital pleaded guilty last week to lying to Medicare about the medical center's use of electronic health records.

Joe White, former CFO of Shelby Regional Medical Center, admitted that he knowingly made a false statement in November 2012 to Medicare, saying the Center, Texas, hospital was a meaningful EHR user, when it didn't actually meet those requirements, according to the U.S. Justice Department. Because of that statement, the hospital received $785,655 from Medicare, according to the Justice Department. The hospital closed in 2013.

As CFO, White was in charge of the EHR implementation for Shelby Regional and responsible for attesting to the meaningful use of electronic records to receive incentive payments under Medicare's EHR incentive program.

Attempts to reach White's attorney, Colin Bryan Amann, were unsuccessful.

A sentencing date has not yet been set, but White could face up to five years in federal prison. —Lisa Schencker

Follow Lisa Schencker on Twitter: @lschencker