MORE ON: medicare

Prime Healthcare Services has turned around the finances of more than a dozen struggling California hospitals by focusing on emergency room operations. Some chain critics say the changes have come with a cost.      + read more

Prime Healthcare Services, California's largest for-profit hospital chain, has had private grudges and public disputes over health insurers paying bottom dollar and managing patient care from business offices. Managed care firms, in turn, say Prime captures its patients in the interest of profit.... + read more

Estos pacientes llegaron a los hospitales de la cadena Prime con verdaderos problemas médicos. Pero terminaron siendo blancos de una estrategia empresarial cuyo objetivo es maximizar la cantidad de pacientes con seguro que reciben tratamiento en los hospitales de la empresa, según un análisis de... + read more

A new competitive bidding program meant to save Medicare billions is shaking up medical suppliers across the U.S., including in Riverside and San Bernardino counties where the new system is already in place. Medicare revolutionized the way it pays for items such as oxygen tanks and... + read more

Citing a California Watch story, a state Senate leader has called for a public health investigation into "alarming" malnutrition rates among Medicare patients at the Prime Healthcare hospital chain. Sen. Ed Hernandez, D-West Covina, who is chair of the Senate Health Committee, says... + read more

Patients covered by Medicare do not tend to see the diagnostic codes that form the basis for government payment to hospitals. Here's how it works. + read more

A large percentage of dialysis technicians are failing a new competency test required by federal authorities, cutting into the patient-care workforce in California. Dialysis patients rely heavily on services provided at storefront facilities to do what their kidneys can no longer do –... + read more