Prime Healthcare is back in the news again, this time not over ownership and claim issues, but infection rates this time. Prime Health though is still in the business of 
buying up hospitals when the opportunities arise and a few months ago they were unsuccessful in their bid for IHHI, a chain of 4 hospitals.
Heritage Provider Network May Join Prime Healthcare in Bidding for Bankrupt Victor Valley Community Hospital
If you have been to any of their facilities in Orange County, you can roll bowling balls through the parking lots as they are that empty, why? Prime does not contract with health insurance companies and thus when patients are treated, they pay the normal and customary charges Prime has in place, so what you get is a high class emergency room with good care and a ghost type setting for the inpatient areas. The alternative for most of the facilities they purchased would have been closure for the many.
In addition to the infection rates, we are back to audit bills and claims here again too. BD
The owner of four Orange County hospitals is under state and federal investigation for high infection rates that could indicate Medicare fraud or an alarming health concern, California Watch reports.
The 13 hospitals owned by Prime Healthcare Services of Victorville have the nation’s highest rate of septicemia, a serious blood infection. That’s according to an analysis done by Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West.
The union, which represents workers at four Prime Hospitals, including Garden Grove Hospital, is in a labor dispute with Prime. The company is owned by the controversial Dr. Prem Reddy.
Prime’s Orange County hospitals have the following rates: West Anaheim Medical Center: 23 percent; Garden Grove Hospital: 14.4 percent; Huntington Beach Hospital 11.6 percent; La Palma Intercommunity: 8.4 percent, according to the union report.
Prime officials have said their rates may be higher because they treat sicker patients.
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