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Shasta Regional Medical Center
Shasta Regional Medical Center, formerly known as Redding Medical Center and Memorial Hospital, is a general acute care hospital that is located in Redding, California. It opened in 1945 and currently has 226 beds with a basic emergency department.[1][2] HistoryThe hospital was founded by Dr. Thomas Wyatt, M.D., in 1945 as Memorial Hospital.[3] It was purchased by Tenet Healthcare Corporation in 1976 and renamed Redding Medical Center. In 2008, it was sold to Hospital Partners of America and renamed Shasta Regional Medical Center.[4] Legal issuesIn 2002, amid a federal investigation of two cardiologists at the hospital, Drs. Chae Hyun Moon and Fidel Realyvasquez,[5][6][7][8] and as part of a settlement with federal regulators, Tenet Healthcare Corporation was compelled to sell the hospital to Hospital Partners of America for US$60 million in 2004.[9] Unnecessary care and billingAt Redding Medical Center, the early-2000s investigation, raid and litigation were prompted because "physicians undertook large volumes of inappropriate and unnecessary procedures on largely healthy patients".[10] The investigation into Moon and Realyvasquez was the result of multiple whistleblower lawsuits filed under the Federal False Claims Act alleging unnecessary medical procedures.[11] Catholic Priest John Corapi,[12] Joseph Zerga and Redding physician Patrick Campbell split 15% of the total $62.55 million settlement.[13] Tenet had already agreed to pay $54 million in 2003 to settle the federal case without admitting any wrongdoing but with an agreement for new oversight procedures for physicians and staff.[14] In 2004, Tenet established a $395 million fund for 769 cardiac patients to settle civil suits relating to procedures performed by Moon and Realyvasquez.[15][16] There was evidence that Prime Healthcare Services engaged in upcoding elderly patients to malnutrition. At Shasta Regional Medical Center, Prime reported 16.1% of their Medicare patients suffered from kwashiorkor. The state of California average for Medicare patients is 0.2% suffering from kwashiorkor. Prime Healthcare Services was investigated for Medicare fraud by United States Department of Health and Human Services and the California Department of Justice.[17] In 2013, SRMC agreed to a settlement regarding claims of HIPAA violations when 2 senior leaders met with a reporter to discuss medical services provided to a patient.[18] In 2021, Prime Healthcare & 2 doctors agreed to pay $37.5 Million to settle allegations of violations of the California False Claims Act.[19] References
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