Prime Healthcare Services

The origins of Prime Healthcare Services trace back to 1985 when Dr. Prem Reddy founded Desert Valley Medical Group in Victorville, California.[3] In 1992, he established Primecare Medical Group and, two years later, spearheaded the construction of Desert Valley Hospital, an 83-bed acute care hospital in Victorville, which serves as the flagship hospital for the entire system. In 1998, PrimeCare Medical Group and Desert Valley Medical Group were sold to PhyCor, a publicly traded company based in Tennessee. In 2001, Dr. Prem Reddy founded Prime Healthcare Services, Inc. and reacquired Desert Valley Hospital.[4]

Prime Healthcare operates 45 acute care hospitals in 14 states,[9] serving communities in San Bernardino, San Diego, Los Angeles, Inglewood, Orange County and Shasta County in California, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Texas. The hospital network has more than 50,000 employees and physicians, and more than 8,700 patient beds.^[2] Prime Healthcare’s national corporate headquarters is located at 3480 E. Guasti Road, Ontario, California 91761.[2]

Hospitals

Prime Healthcare Hospitals Map

The list of Prime Healthcare hospitals

Hospital	City	State	Founded
Riverview Regional Medical Center	Gadsden	Alabama	1917
Alvarado Hospital Medical Center	San Diego	California	1972
Centinela Hospital Medical Center	Inglewood	California	1924
Chino Valley Medical Center	Chino	California	1972
Desert Valley Hospital	Victorville	California	1994
Encino Hospital Medical Center	Encino	California	1954
Garden Grove Hospital Medical Center	Garden Grove	California	1982
Huntington Beach Hospital	Huntington Beach	California	1967
La Palma Intercommunity Hospital	La Palma	California	1972
Montclair Hospital Medical Center	Montclair	California	1973
Paradise Valley Hospital	National City	California	1904
San Dimas Community Hospital	San Dimas	California	1971
Shasta Regional Medical Center	Redding	California	1945
Sherman Oaks Hospital	Sherman Oaks	California	1969
St. Francis Medical Center	Lynwood	California	1945
West Anaheim Medical Center	Anaheim	California	1964
Lehigh Regional Medical Center	Lehigh Acres	Florida	1965
Southern Regional Medical Center	Riverdale	Georgia	1971
Monroe Hospital	Bloomington	Indiana	2006
Providence Medical Center	Kansas City	Kansa	1920
Saint John Hospital	Leavenworth	Kansa	1864
Garden City Hospital	Garden City	Michigan	1947
Lake Huron Medical Center	Port Huron	Michigan	1954
St. Joseph Medical Center	Kansas City	Kansas	1874
St. Mary’s Medical Center	Blue Springs	Missouri	1981
North Vista Hospital	North Las Vegas	Nevada	1959
Saint Mary’s Regional Medical Center	Reno	Nevada	1877
Saint Clare’s Behavioral Health	Boonton Township	New Jersey	1955
Saint Clare’s Denville Hospital	Denville	New Jersey	1953
Saint Clare’s Dover Hospital	Dover	New Jersey	1916
Saint Michael’s Medical Center	Newark	New Jersey	1867
St. Mary’s General Hospital	Passaic	New Jersey	1895
Coshocton Regional Medical Center	Coshocton	Ohio	1909
East Liverpool City Hospital	East Liverpool	Ohio	1905
Lower Bucks Hospital	Bristol	Pennsylvania	1954
Roxborough Memorial Hospital	Philadelphia	Pennsylvania	1890
Suburban Community Hospital	East Norriton	Pennsylvania	1984
Landmark Medical Center	Woonsocket	Rhode Island	1873
Rehabilitation Hospital of Rhode Island	North Smithfield	Rhode Island	1965
Dallas Medical Center	Dallas	Texas	1964
Dallas Regional Medical Center	Mesquite	1964	Texas
Harlingen Medical Center	Harlingen	Texas	2002
Knapp Medical Center	Weslaco	Texas	1962
Mission Regional Medical Center	Mission	Texas	1954
Pampa Regional Medical Center	Pampa	Texas	1950

In 2007, the Los Angeles Times ran a news story that alleged that the policies of Prime HealthCare Services, Inc., resulted in higher-than-average profits for the possible cost of patient care: "When Reddy's company, Prime Healthcare Services Inc., takes over a hospital, it typically cancels insurance contracts, allowing the hospital to collect steeply higher reimbursements. It has suspended services — such as chemotherapy treatments, mental health care and birthing centers — that patients need but aren't lucrative.... On four occasions since 2002, inspectors have found that Prime Healthcare facilities failed to meet minimum federal safety standards, placing their Medicare funding at risk."[10]

In 2008 the State of California and Kaiser Permanente each sued Prime Healthcare over its balance billing practices and Kaiser obtained an injunction preventing Prime from continuing the practice; Prime had cancelled agreements with insurance companies when it acquired hospitals, leaving patients in an out-of-network situation resulting in higher costs, and has been aggressively pursuing patients including sending unpaid costs to collection agencies.[11] This was the first of several suits between Prime and Kaiser. In June 2010 Kaiser sued Prime Healthcare for "trapping patients" and contended that Prime Healthcare needlessly admitted emergency department patients, rather than transfer them to Kaiser facilities and then sending their insurance companies highly inflated bills.[12] Prime counter-sued Kaiser and the Service Employees International Union, claiming that Kaiser owed it $100 million in unpaid medical claims and that Kaiser and the union conspired to keep Prime out of the market;[13] that suit was dismissed in 2012,[14] and Prime appealed all the way to the US Supreme Court, which declined to hear the case in 2016.[15] In 2015 both sides agreed on dropping their respective lawsuits and resolve them through confidential and binding arbitration.[13]

In 2010 Prime Healthcare came under investigation by the US Department of Health and Human Services and the California Department of Justice about concerns over a reported spike in sepsis. The investigation centers around whether the spike in sepsis represents a large public health issue or multimillion-dollar Medicare fraud. Six Prime hospitals ranked in the 99th percentile of U.S. hospitals for sepsis and five were in the 95th percentile.[16] In 2011 Prime Healthcare Service had high rates of kwashiorkor among its elderly patients. At Shasta Regional Medical Center, Prime reported 16.1% of its Medicare patients suffered from kwashiorkor, but California's average for Medicare patients is 0.2%.[17] In 2011 California Watch reported that Prime Healthcare had a practice of transferring high numbers of patients from its emergency department to its hospital beds, specifically with patients on Medicare. Some families describe being trapped by doctors at Prime facilities and were unable to see their own doctor at another facility. Former Prime employees have described an orchestrated campaign of admitting Medicare and Kaiser patients, moving them from the emergency department to a hospital bed, in the interest of changing the fortune of a money-losing hospital.[18] In September 2011, California Attorney General Kamala Harris rejected the approval for the sale of the Victor Valley Global Medical Center in Victorville, California, and stated that the sale would not be in the public interest.[19]

In 2012, two executives at Prime Healthcare Services disclosed a patient's chart to multiple media outlets without the patient's express written consent. The release was in response to a California Watch article on Prime Healthcare Services billing practices at Shasta Regional Medical Center, which included claims by a Darlene Courtois about her treatment by Shasta. In this incident, Randall Hempling, the hospital CEO, and Dr. Marcia McCampbell, its chief medical officer, showed up at the offices of the Redding Record Searchlight and successfully convinced the paper's editor not to publish an article, echoing the California Watch claims by reference to Courtois' actual medical records.[20]

In May 2016 US Department of Justice joined a qui tam case against Prime Health Care and its chief executive concerning Medicare fraud.[21] The case was settled in August 2018 for $65 million, resolving the "allegations that 14 Prime hospitals in California knowingly submitted false claims to Medicare by admitting patients who required only less costly, outpatient care and by billing for more expensive patient diagnoses than the patients had (a practice known as "up-coding")."[22] An additional case was settled in February 2019 for $1.25 million for similar allegations regarding two Prime hospitals in Pennsylvania.[23]

In July 2021 US Department of Justice announce another settlement with Prime Health Care and its CEO Prem Reddy concerning kickbacks, overcharging for medical implants, and billing for a non-eligible provider by using another provider's billing identity. Dr. Reddy paid $1,775,000; and Prime paid $33,725,000.[24]

Prime Healthcare's executive management team includes the following members:[25]

• Prem Reddy, MD, FACC, FCCP: Chairman, President & CEO
• Kavitha Bhatia, MD, MMM, FAAP, FACHE: President and Chair, Prime Healthcare Foundation & Chief Medical Officer of Strategy, Prime Healthcare
• Sunny Bhatia, MD, MMM, FACHE, FACC, FSCAI: CEO, Region I & Corporate Chief Medical Officer
• Sunitha Reddy: Chief Revenue Officer & Vice President of Operations
• Sonia Mehta, MD: CEO Region II, Corporate Chief Medical Officer & Chief Academic Officer
• Paryus Patel, MD: Corporate Chief Medical Officer
• Harsha Upadhyay: Chief Executive Officer, Region III
• Saju George: Chief Executive Officer, Region V
• Luis Leon: CEO, Region VI
• Steve Aleman: Chief Financial Officer
• Joel Richlin, Esq.: Vice President & General Counsel

Prime Healthcare’s have earned national attention, including being recognized as one of the “15 Top Health Systems” in the nation three times by Fortune/IBM Watson Health (formerly known as Truven Health Analytics).[26] Prime Healthcare hospitals have been ranked among the “100 Top Hospitals” in the nation 66times by Fortune/IBM Watson Health.[27]

Prime Healthcare has more award-winning hospitals in patient safety than any other health system for eight consecutive years (2016-2023).[28][29] In addition, Prime Healthcare has received numerous accolades and recognition from other organizations that include Leapfrog, US News & World Report, Becker’s Hospital Review,[30] Women’s Choice, CMS, and American Heart Association/American Stroke Association.[31]

Awards and recognition for specific hospitals in Prime Healthcare include the following:

• In 2021, In 2021, Prime Healthcare was awarded the 2021 John M. Eisenberg Patient Safety and Quality Award from The Joint Commission.[32]
• In 2021, several Prime hospitals were named in the "Top 100 Hospitals in the Nation."[29] In New Jersey, Prime has received credit for saving St. Michael's Medical Center in Newark from bankruptcy and keeping it open; St. Michael's also improved from an "F" to "A" grade in Leapfrog safety scores under Prime.[33]
• Six Prime Healthcare hospitals, including Sherman Oaks Hospital, were named to the Fortune/IBM Watson Health list of the 100 Top Hospitals in the nation in 2021.[26] Also in 2021, Providence Medical Center in Kansas City, Kansas, and Saint Mary's Regional Medical Center in Reno, Nevada, were named among the top five percent of hospitals in the country by Healthgrades.[34]
• Two of Prime Healthcare's Los Angeles County hospitals were named on the Becker's 2019 Hospital Review list of 100 top community hospitals - San Dimas Community Hospital and Centinela Hospital Medical Center.[31]
• In 2016, Becker's Hospital Review listed four Prime Healthcare hospitals in a list of 49 hospitals with the lowest rate of serious complications.[27]
• In 2012, eight of Prime Healthcare Services' hospitals were named among the "100 Top Hospitals" in the nation by Thomson Reuters.[26]
• Desert Valley Hospital has been recognized as a Top 100 Hospital in the Nation.[4] In 2021, Dr. Prem Reddy was recognized as one of the 500 Most Influential Business Leaders in Los Angeles for the second time by the Los Angeles Business Journal.[35]

Prime Healthcare donates funds to improving healthcare and increasing educational opportunities in the communities in which it operates through two non-profit organizations: Prime Healthcare Foundation and Dr. Prem Reddy Family Foundation.[36]

• Official website