Dive Brief:
- Controversial California-based hospital company Prime Healthcare Services is about to close its first deal in New England, contingent on its agreeing to a long list of condititions imposed by the state of Rhode Island's department of health.
- Prime is acquiring Landmark Medical Center and the Rehabilititation Hospital of Rhode Island, which owed more than $10 million in debt to their vendors when a special master was named to oversee their operations.
- While Prime faces many challenges to its reputation, including federal upcoding allegations, high septecemia rates at its facilities and legal battles with the Service Employees International Union and Kaiser Permanente, state officials argued that the otherwise likely closure of the hospital should be avoided as in the public's interest.
Dive Insight:
As anyone who has been following it for a while knows, the Ontario, Calif.-based Prime hospital chain has attracted controversy since it embarked on a nationwide expansion strategy starting in 2011. Throughout its history, in which it is made a business of turning around struggling community hospitals, Prime has attracted criticism from various parties doing business with it, including unions who claimed that the chain would not allow them to unionize its workforce. Prime expects to look at a handful of additional acquisitions in 2014, so don't be surprised if the controversies it seems to generate pop up again.