MORE ON: medicare

A detailed look at the case of a single patient at Chino Valley Medical Center shows just how much money a hospital can make when listing acute heart failure as a secondary diagnosis on a Medicare bill. + read more

California Watch examined three years’ worth of state Medicare billing data showing that Chino Valley Medical Center, owned by Prime Healthcare Services, had the highest rate in the state of acute heart failure cases. + read more

Former medical coding staff from Prime Healthcare hospitals have raised concerns about diagnoses that may misconstrue what’s going on with the patient. However, it is not always easy for patients to know what diagnoses were used as a basis for a hospital bill to Medicare. Find answers to questions... + read more

Prime Healthcare Services bills Medicare for a variety of unusual ailments – among them a brain disease and a condition causing eyes to bleed – that can generate lucrative payments to the chain.  + read more

Prime Healthcare has responded to questions about medical coding by saying it relies on doctors to properly diagnose patients and on hospital chief executives to oversee legal compliance. Prime also cautioned against “being duped by innuendo and misstatements” by disgruntled former workers. + read more

Prime Healthcare Services acquired 11 California hospitals from 2005 to 2009. After Prime acquired each facility, the percentage of seniors with Medicare who were sent from the emergency room to the main hospital increased. Compare the Medicare admission rates at each hospital, before and after... + read more

California Watch analyzed state data to determine admission rates at Prime Healthcare Services hospitals. Here’s how we crunched the numbers. + read more