10 Things to Know About Prime Healthcare Services

Ontario, Calif.- Prime Healthcare Services is one of the most immediately expanding, private for-profit hospital operators in the country.

Here we have 10 things to know about Prime Healthcare.

1. Prime Healthcare currently operates 25 acute-care hospitals across California, Kansas, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Texas. Totally, Prime Healthcare has more than 30,000 employees as well as 4,675 patient beds.

2. Prime Healthcare arrives to be using an aggressive merger & acquisition strategy to expand its presence. Recent deals include an agreement to acquire Garden City (Mich.) Hospital, the purchase of Landmark Medical Center in Woonsocket, R.I., and the planned acquisition of several New Jersey hospitals, including Saint Michael's Medical Center in Newark and Saint Mary's Hospital in Passaic. 

3. Although industry experts have observed some larger for-profit hospital operators are becoming more selective in the smaller providers they acquire, Prime Healthcare seems to still be willing to take on financially troubled facilities. For example, Saint Mary's Hospital — which Prime Healthcare has applied to acquire— has been struggling financially for a number of years and currently has about $39 million in long-term outstanding debt and $5.1 million in a working capital line of credit.

4. This past September, the hospital operator issued $475 million in debt, partly to help finance its hospital acquisitions. The debt was broken down into a $250 million senior secured term loan and a $225 million asset-based credit facility, with the term loan going toward acquisition financing.

5. Prime Healthcare has also invested an appreciable amount in infrastructure improvements. From 2005 to 2012, the organization invested approximately $65 million in capital improvements and equipment for its facilities.

6. Prem Reddy, MD, plays as the hospital operator's chairman, president & CEO. Dr. Reddy is double board-certified in internal medicine and cardiology and practiced for 25 years in Southern California, performing more than 5,000 cardiac procedures. He founded Prime Healthcare in 2001.

7. In 2006, Dr. Reddy organized the Prime Healthcare Services Foundation, there is a nonprofit public charity that owns six non-profit hospitals in California. Each of the hospitals was donated to the foundation and is considered a community asset.

8. Eight of Prime Healthcare's hospitals were included in Truven Health Analytics' 100 Top Hospitals list for 2014. Prime Healthcare hospitals have been identified by Truven 27 times since 2003.

9. In 2013, Mostly 11 Prime Healthcare hospitals achieved national recognition as "Top Performer on Key Quality Measures" from The Joint Commission.

10. Prime Healthcare has dealt with several legal problems & allegations surrounding Medicare billing. Kwashiorkor is a form of severe protein malnutrition that mostly affects children in famine-stricken areas and developing countries. In the past year or so, the HHS Office of Inspector General has been cracking down on erroneous kwashiorkor billing and related overpayments. Although Prime Healthcare has guarded its billing practices, it has curbed its billing of the condition. Additionally, earlier this year, an employee whistle-blower claimed Prime Healthcare submitted $50 million in false claims for Medicare patient stays.