Woonsocket hospital owner facing government fraud suit

[TexasTowelie]

WOONSOCKET – When the state Attorney General’s Office approved the sale of Landmark Medical Center to California-based hospital chain Prime Health Services in 2013, certain conditions were placed on the sale.

They included reporting and investment requirements, as well as the caveat that Prime tell Rhode Island’s top law office about the outcome of an ongoing fraud investigation by the Department of Justice.

Now, it seems, the DOJ is in the midst a federal suit against the 43-hospital, 14-state health care chain.

And concerns have been raised that an application to turn the Woonsocket facility back into a non-profit could jeopardize regulators’ ability to further monitor Landmark, and its patient care in northern Rhode Island.

Read more: http://www.valleybreeze.com/2017-03-15/woonsocket-north-smithfield/woonsocket-hospital-owner-facing-government-fraud-suit#.WMyjbGe1vRY

[Docreed2003]

1. Damn....

I used to practice in RI and I'm quite familiar with Landmark and the role it plays in that community. It was quite the head scratcher that a for-profit entity would want to come in and buy up the facility in the first place, but I know the people there and I'm friends with some of the staff, that hospital provides an invaluable service to that community, many of the residents can't travel to Providence or Warwick for care. To see the hospital being used likes this as a pawn in this corporations game is heartbreaking.