With New Attorney General In Place, Hospitals Renew Requests To Cut Charity Care
Kamala Harris, who preceded Attorney General Xavier Becerra, denied four such requests before leaving her post to serve in the U.S. Senate.
Modern Healthcare:
Some California Hospitals Seek To Cut Charity Care By More Than Half
Not long after California's attorney general was sworn in at the beginning of this year, hospitals got to work renewing pleas his predecessor had shot down to more than halve their charity-care obligations. The California Hospital Association said it's in talks with Attorney General Xavier Becerra's office on behalf of a handful of not-for-profit hospitals that need his permission to cut charity care. Kamala Harris, who preceded Becerra, denied four such requests before leaving her post to serve in the U.S. Senate. This fall, requests from the same four hospitals trickled back in, but the CHA says it knows of roughly 15 that want to make the change. (Bannow, 12/18)
In other hospital news —
Los Angeles Times:
After 157 Years In Chinatown, Los Angeles’ Oldest Hospital Shuts Its Doors
Xiaoyuan Yang was pregnant and her husband Weiming Lei needed a job when they moved more than 20 years ago from Guangzhou, China, to Los Angeles. "We knew nothing, and we didn't understand anything," Lei said. "Someone told us to live in Chinatown. "There, Yang found work at a Chinese restaurant, and their neighbors told them about a hospital just down the street where the staff spoke not only Mandarin and Cantonese, but the Toishan and Zhongshan dialects as well. (Shyong, 12/18)
Modern Healthcare:
Cedars-Sinai Faces Sexual Harassment Suit Over Surgeon's Conduct Toward Nurse
As discussion of sexual harassment in healthcare grows, an ambulatory surgery center charge nurse has sued a prominent Los Angeles eye surgeon and the Cedars-Sinai Health System for battery, sexual harassment and discrimination. Nurse Paula Rickey alleges she was punished and forced to resign for reporting the incident, which was captured on surveillance video, while the surgeon, Dr. Kerry Kourosh Assil, received mild or no punishment. She claims that Cedars-Sinai, which owns the 90210 Surgery Center, failed to prevent or correct the harassment and discrimination. (Meyer, 12/18)