Prime Healthcare Investigation Continues

July 2011

The investigation into the billing practices of Prime Healthcare, owners of Garden Grove Hospital and Medical Center and Chino Valley Medical Center, continued Monday with an official letter sent to the director of the California Department of Public Health.

Assemblyman Bill Monning, a representative from Santa Cruz, requested more information from the Department of Health after becoming concerned about unusually high reported rates of septicemia and kwashiorkor at two Prime Healthcare hospitals. These two conditions, when billed to Medicare, receive bonus payments in the thousands of dollars. Said Monning, the health department's probe "appears to raise as many questions as it answers, and the disturbing findings at Prime Healthcare necessitate a thorough investigation."

For more information, see the article at California Healthline.

Prime is still collecting data in cooperation with the investigation.