Roxborough Hospital CEO Defends Ownership; State Senator Continues Inquiry

In what's becoming a "he said, she said" arguement, 's new CEO defended the hospital's ownership, while state Sen. Shirley Kitchen (D-3) pushed for more information regarding medical records practices.

Peter J. Adamo took over the struggling Ridge Avenue facility three weeks ago after . The California-based company is known for rehabbing facilities and making them financially stable. The company also recently met with controversy as California health officials investigated its billing and documentation processes, following a series of reports from California Watch, an online news source.

Kitchen's third district covers the hospital, and to review Prime's acquisition. She also began a back-and-forth with Adamo.

In an April 16 letter, Kitchen questioned investigations into Prime Healthcare and its current standing within California. Her ultimate logic: If Prime was accused of unfair billing at home, what might happen in Roxborough?

"Prime's record is incredibly troubling and your representation of that record further deepens my concern about corporate integrity at Prime," she wrote.

In an interview with Patch, Adamo said that investigations never yielded any citations against Prime Healthcare. Challenges to billing practices and medical documentation brought on investigations, but the State of California dismissed citations citing insufficient evidence.

"In order for Prime Healthcare to commit these crimes, we would have to orchestrate institutional collusion... with more than 200 people together. There's a reason they couldn't find malfeasance—it didn't happen," he said.

What's the Truth?

Reviewing Kitchen's response, Adamo's words, and other news sources, it seems the truth is somewhere in between.

One specific challenge thrown out by California looked into the cause of elevated rates of septicemia—a blood poisoning infection—at Prime hospitals pertaining to insufficient or inaccurate billing and coding methods.

The senator takes exception to Adamo's remarks that California "found no evidence to support the allegations." She suggests the statements from the inquiry—"there is not sufficient basis for determining that the medical records were incomplete or inaccurate"—don't entirely exonerate Prime.

Additionally, Kitchen cites an FBI interview with Prime employees and wonders why Adamo denies knowledge of an investigation. However, there's been no public information indicating that Prime is the subject of a FBI inquiry, just that an interview occured.

"Her opinion is based upon one perspective. I wish she spoke to me rather than listening to biased information," Adamo said.

Many of Kitchen's insights come from online publication California Watch, which has chronicled Prime Healthcare. The news outlet recently received George Polk Award for its series on the healthcare system, "Decoding Prime."

That series analyzed billing practices and interviewed former patients. Adamo said the outlet held a pro-union bias and unfairly characterized the situation. Kitchen rejected that assertion.

"(Y)ou appear to point the finger at others," she said citing Adamo's remarks accusing the media, other hospitals, and the California Attorney General of bias—and Kitchen for "failing to gather all the facts." 

Roxborough's other state house member, Rep. Pam DeLissio (D-194), isn't pushing the matter like Kitchen is. Although she hasn't taken an official position on the situation, she isn't pursuing the investigation, either.

"This is more of an issue of something that happened in California, not Pennsylvania. This is a private transaction, which already went through," she said.

The Philadelphia Inquirer, in its original report on the hospital sale, interviewed Joshua Nemzoff, a Rhode Island-based hospital mergers and acquisitions expert. Aware of the investigations, Nemzoff praised Prime Healthcare's practices.

"At first blush the press on them is not very good," Nemzoff told the Inquirer. "What really happened, when you get behind it, there's no substance to any of the accusations."

Plans for Improvement

Outside of any challenges, Prime Healthcare owns Roxborough Hospital and will begin modernization techniques. Adamo said Tuesday that the company plans to invest $20 million in the hospital. Before anything serious gets under way, he said the hospital must work to right the ship.

"We need to bring it up to speed first. We have to make it look like and act like a hospital," he said.

Initial plans call for basic fixes: painting, updating heating and air conditioning systems, and even buying new chairs. Eventually, Adamo said Roxborough Hospital would analyze and expand its operating rooms. Plans for a new women's digital imaging center, he said, are temporarily on the backburner.

"We don't have a large gynecological program in place. We want to take care of that and other areas of women's health before moving on to radiology," he said.

Originally from Willingboro, NJ, Adamo most recently ran Alvardo Hospital in San Diego. Prime Healthcare offered the Roxborough position due to his local knowledge—he previously worked for Graduate Hospital.

Solis Healthcare sold the 137-bed facility after losing reportedly $2 million in 2010, according to the Philadelphia Business Journal. Adamo said Prime allows for failing hospitals to rebound.

"It's a major undertaking, but we have the resources to fund updates. We're working to get out of the red and into the black, and we're excited to become partners with the community," he said.