Is Prime Healthcare Starving Its Medicare Patients?

Is Prime Healthcare Starving Its Medicare Patients?


Under investigation by state and federal officials, Prime Healthcare Services is operating hospitals in California that have patients with unusually high rates of malnutrition that usually is found only among starving children in developing countries.

At the company’s Shasta Regional Medical Center in Redding, 16.1% of the Medicare patients 65 and older in 2009 suffered from a particular type of malnutrition known as kwashiorkor. This rate is 70 times higher than the state average of 0.2%, according to the investigative website California Watch.

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The investigation by California Watch also found Prime reported in 2009 that 25% of its Medicare patients were malnourished, a diagnosis that also can entitle a hospital to a reimbursement bonus from the government. The state average for hospitalized seniors suffering from malnutrition was 7.5%.

In addition, it was discovered that of the 10 California hospitals reporting the highest malnutrition rates among Medicare patients, eight—including the top four—were owned by Prime.

http://www.allgov.com/Controversies/ViewNews/Is_Prime_Healthcare_Starving_Its_Medicare_Patients_110223

This is barbaric.