In Brief: CDPH Fines 10 Hospitals; ApolloMed Launches IPA
CDPH Fines 10 Hospitals $625,000 For Care Mishaps
The California Department of Public Health announced on Thursday it had issued administrative penalties to 10 hospitals and fines totaling $625,000.
All received penalties for medical errors and mishaps that placed the lives of patients in danger, such as leaving objects in their bodies during surgery.
Penalty recipients included two campuses of the California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco. Its Pacific facility received its fourth administrative penalty, while its St. Luke's campus received its first penalty.
Other penalty recipients included Children's Hospital Los Angeles, Santa Monica-UCLA Medical Center, Tri-City Medical Center, Fallbrook Hospital District and Palomar Health in San Diego, St. Joseph Hospital in Eureka, Simi Valley Hospital, and Marin General Hospital.
More details regarding the penalties and fines will be reported in next week's issue of Payers & Providers.
Apollo Medical Launches New IPA
Apollo Medical Holdings, the Glendale-based hospitalist group, has launched a new independent physician association.
Known as the Maverick Medical Group, the IPA is expected to serve patients enrolled in commercial plans, Medicare, Medi-Cal and dual-eligible plans. It has secured contracts from health plans specializing in these areas, according to ApolloMed officials, and will start with about 150 contract physicians.
“Maverick enables ApolloMed to more fully capture value from our hospitalists' high quality, cost-effective performance, as well as to leverage the growing ApolloMed ACO care community," said Warren Hosseinion, M.D., ApolloMed's chief executive officer.
Maverick will operate as an equity-sharing IPA, meaning physicians will receive monthly capitation payments for care and do not require a buy-in.
Miller Children’s Opens Pediatric Allergy Center
Miller's Children Hospital in Long Beach has opened a pediatric food allergy center, apparently the first of its kind in Southern California.
Known as the Food Allergy Center, officials say its opening is in response to rising rates of pediatric food-related allergies which are as high as one in 20 children. It specializes in milk, egg, wheat, soy, tree nuts and peanut allergies.
The center not only offers testing, but oral immunotherapy, a new kind of allergy treatment that gradually exposes children to the foodstuff's they're allergic to in order to gradually build a resistance.
“It stands apart nationally as a center that comprehensively incorporates specialty expertise by an allergist/immunologist, gastroenterologist and a registered dietitian in the same visit,” said Inderpal Randhawa, M.D., the new center's medical director.
