Tenet Healthcare Completes Sale of Redding Medical Center to Hospital Partners of America
Officials for Santa Barbara-based Tenet Healthcare on Friday announced that the company has completed a $55 million sale of Redding Medical Center to North Carolina-based Hospital Partners of America, a move that marks the "first time a company agreed to sell a hospital to keep federal health funding," the Sacramento Bee reports. Redding will become Shasta Regional Medical Center, the companies announced (Rapaport, Sacramento Bee, 7/17). Tenet agreed to sell Redding last year after federal regulators moved to ban the 246-bed hospital from Medicare, Medicaid and other government health programs. In August, Tenet officials agreed to pay $54 million to settle allegations that a former chief cardiologist and a former cardiac surgeon at Redding performed unnecessary heart surgeries and defrauded Medicare. In the past, government-sponsored health programs have accounted for about 75% of Redding's annual revenue. Under the settlement, federal regulators will allow Redding to continue to participate in Medicare and Medicaid (California Healthline, 4/19). Redding officials said that the hospital cardiac surgery program, which they suspended in response to the allegations, will resume operations in the fall (Sacramento Bee, 7/17). Redding will remain responsible for liabilities that could result from pending lawsuits (AP/Los Angeles Times, 7/17).
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