Lockyer Grants ‘Conditional Approval’ for Daniel Freeman Hospitals Sale to Tenet

Attorney General Bill Lockyer (D) last Friday provided "conditional approval" for the $55 million sale of Daniel Freeman Hospitals, the last not-for-profit hospitals in Inglewood and Marina del Rey, to the for-profit Tenet Healthcare Corp., the Los Angeles Times reports. However, Santa Barbara-based Tenet has expressed "disappointment" over some of the conditions Lockyer attached to the deal. Lockyer said that he would only approve the sale "if Tenet agreed to provide charity care" at the facilities at a cost of $2 million per year for seven years. In addition, Tenet would be required to operate the emergency room at Daniel Freeman Memorial Hospital, Inglewood campus, for five years while maintaining operations at the emergency room at Inglewood's Centinela Hospital Medical Center, which the company owns, for the same period. Lockyer also has "demanded" that Tenet "make sure that the ratio of nurses to patients was in keeping with standards being developed" under a new state law. "The attorney general has some very serious concerns about ensuring that quality health care is provided to the people of that community," Lockyer spokesperson Nathan Barankin said, adding that the attorney general "believes that the conditions are necessary in order to ensure that the patients in the community surrounding Daniel Freeman Hospital can continue to receive quality health care." Tenet spokesperson Harry Anderson said, however, that the company has "some very serious reservations about the conditions." He added, "These conditions are serious enough to break the deal, but we're not saying that as yet." Tenet is reviewing Lockyer's conditions and will likely make a decision early this week, Anderson said (Bernstein, Los Angeles Times, 12/8).