Ontario, CA, July 19, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Prime Healthcare, an award-winning national hospital system, announced today that it has reached a settlement with the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) on two related civil matters, with a complete release of any liability and no finding of fault.
The settled matters related to an isolated, single physician practice in Southern California between 2015-2017 and billing of forty-five implantable device claims. The allegations did not involve patient care, but instead related to the valuation of a physician practice and the appropriate documentation for a limited number of implant claims totaling approximately $200,000. As soon as these matters were identified, Prime conducted an exhaustive internal review, fully cooperated with the DOJ and negotiated a mutually acceptable resolution.
In order to ensure continued transparency, Prime has agreed to amend its current Corporate Integrity Agreement (“CIA”) to include testing on physician compensation arrangements as part of the settlement. CIAs are standard monitoring agreements in the healthcare industry and Prime has operated successfully under a CIA since 2018 and remains in full compliance. This settlement has already been fully disclosed and reserved in the 2020 year-end financials and audit report.
“This settlement creates resolution and allows Prime to focus on its mission of saving hospitals to save lives,” said Joel Richlin, Prime Healthcare General Counsel. “Our mission is to save hospitals and ensure compassionate, quality care is available in every community, which is now more important than ever before. As a physician-led health system nationally recognized for clinical excellence, Prime Healthcare always honors the integrity and independence of the physician-patient relationship. We are well-positioned for future growth and will continue executing on our strategic plan, remaining steadfast in providing excellent and compassionate care to all patients during this unprecedented time.”
About Prime Healthcare and Prime Healthcare Foundation: Prime Healthcare is an award-winning health system with 45 hospitals and more than 300 outpatient locations in 14 states, providing over 2.6 million patient visits annually. It is one of the nation’s leading health systems with nearly 50,000 employees and physicians dedicated to providing the highest quality healthcare. Fourteen of the Prime Healthcare hospitals are members of the Prime Healthcare Foundation, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit public charity. Based in Ontario, California, Prime Healthcare is nationally recognized for award-winning quality care and has been named a Top 10 and Top 15 Health System by Fortune/IBM Watson Health. Its hospitals have been named among the nation’s “100 Top Hospitals” 58 times and have received more Patient Safety Excellence Awards from Healthgrades than any other health system in the past six years. To learn more, please visit www.primehealthcare.com