California Hospital News Roundup for the Week of September 18, 2015
Antelope Valley Hospital, Lancaster
Antelope Valley Hospital has filed a lawsuit against Los Angeles County alleging that its trauma center has not received a fair share of funding generated by a parcel tax, the Los Angeles Times reports.
In a complaint filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court, hospital administrators claim that the $1 million the facility receives annually from the tax is disproportionately low. The hospital is seeking more than $100 million in back payments and $10 million annually going forward (Karlamangla, Los Angeles Times, 9/15).
Chapman Global Medical Center, Orange
Workers at Chapman Global Medical Center have voted to unionize, the Orange County Register reports.
The majority of CBMC's 220 workers -- including vocational nurses, respiratory therapists and others -- voted to join Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West. A SEIU-UHW spokesperson said labor negotiations with the hospital have not yet started (Chandler, Orange County Register, 9/17).
John Muir Health, Walnut Creek
Walnut Creek-based John Muir Health will not renew its Medicare accountable care organization program, the San Francisco Business Times' "Bay Area BizTalk" reports.
Since 2013, John Muir and CMS have split $20.7 million in savings under the three-year program. However, the health system decided the federal government's Medicare Advantage HMO program is a better financial fit for the system. John Muir will continue to operate commercial ACOs along with Blue Shield of California and Health Net (Rauber, "Bay Area BizTalk," San Francisco Business Times, 9/11).
Kaiser Permanente
Kaiser Permanente has hired hundreds of health care workers to bolster its mental health care services, Payers & Providers reports.
The move was spurred by allegations from regulators and consumers that Kaiser offered inadequate mental health services. So far, Kaiser has increased its staff of mental health therapists by 45%, or 497 individuals, and it plans to hire an extra 354 mental health professionals by the end of the year (Shinkman, Payers & Providers, 9/17).
Sharp HealthCare, San Diego
Sharp HealthCare has launched a health care news website, according to a release.
The site, called Sharp Health News, will feature original content about medical breakthroughs, new technologies, and health and wellness (Sharp HealthCare release, 9/16).
Sutter Health
Sutter Health has notified 2,582 patients that an employee emailed electronic billing documents related to the patients to a personal account without authorization, the Sacramento Business Journal reports.
The breach occurred on April 26, 2013, but Sutter did not discover it until Aug. 27, following an investigation into a tip about the issue. Information in the documents included names, birth dates, insurance identification numbers, dates of service and billing codes for all patients, as well as the Social Security number an driver's license number of one patient and the driver's license information of another patient.
Sutter said there is no evidence that any personal information has been disclosed to others, but the health system is offering no-cost credit monitoring services to affected individuals for a year. The worker was terminated for unrelated reasons in November 2014 (Robertson, Sacramento Business Journal, 9/11).
Sutter Memorial Hospital, Sacramento
The now-closed Sutter Memorial Hospital is hosting a garage sale of its non-medical equipment, the Sacramento Bee reports.
The hospital closed Aug. 8, when services were transferred to Sutter Health's new Anderson Lucchetti Women's and Children's Center (Lindelof, Sacramento Bee, 9/16).
This is part of the California Healthline Daily Edition, a summary of health policy coverage from major news organizations. Sign up for an email subscription.