Audit Sought on Orthopedics Contract at UC-Irvine
UC-Irvine School of Medicine has hired an auditor to review the orthopedics department's finances after a contract with a private medical practice has cost the school almost $2 million in lost revenue, according to officials, the Los Angeles Times reports.
The medical school in 2003 signed a contract with Mission Orthopedic Medical Associates and its chief surgeon to help the school expand into Orange County, according to physicians in the department.
Under the contract, the school agreed to cover part of the practice's overhead costs and pay the surgeon's wife more than $100,000 in annual salary and monthly "general expenses." The surgeon also was placed on the medical school faculty. In return, his patients all would be billed for their care through the school's medical center in Orange.
However, the costs for the hospital exceeded revenue from the surgeon's patients, according to financial records. The hospital's losses at the end of last year were more than $1.2 million on total revenue of about $4.5 million over the last three years and three months. Total expenses through June 2007 are expected to exceed revenue by more than $1.7 million, according to the Times (Heisel, Los Angeles Times, 3/8).