Catholic Healthcare West

A long-simmering labor dispute at St. Francis Medical Center spilled into the courts Thursday, when union attorneys filed suit to stop the hospital from using public funds for anti-union activities.

A rare alliance of healthcare rivals — a giant insurance company, a major hospital chain and a large doctors group — has managed to reduce healthcare costs through a radical new strategy: working together. The collaboration among Blue Shield of California, Catholic Healthcare West and Hill Physicians Medical Group shaved more than $20 million in costs last year and prevented an insurance rate hike for public sector workers in Northern California. The three partners cite evidence that the quality of care also improved: Hospital stays were shorter, readmissions dropped and doctors and nurses kept closer tabs on patients.

Blue Cross of California, owned by WellPoint Health Networks Inc. in Thousand Oaks, has agreed to a multiyear contract with Catholic Healthcare West. The former contract expired at midnight Aug. 14. The terms of the new contract weren't disclosed. It includes 40 Catholic Healthcare facilities in California and three medical groups affiliated with San Francisco-based Catholic Healthcare in the Sacramento and Santa Cruz areas, the companies said in a joint statement.

The Roman Catholic bishop of Phoenix stripped a hospital of its Catholic affiliation Tuesday for performing an abortion last year that doctors said was needed to save the life of the mother. Bishop Thomas Olmsted said he no longer had confidence that the administration of St. Joseph's Hospital would run it according to Catholic teachings, "and therefore this hospital cannot be considered Catholic. " FOR THE RECORD: Catholic hospital abortion: An article in the Dec. 22 Section A about a dispute over an abortion at a Catholic hospital in Phoenix identified Jenn Giroux as executive director of Human Life International.

Hospital group Catholic Healthcare West has agreed to reimburse as many as 800,000 uninsured patients for excessive charges to settle a class-action price-gouging lawsuit. The suit claimed that the San Francisco-based healthcare provider, which owns 40 hospitals in California, Nevada and Arizona, routinely charged uninsured patients as much as five times the amount paid by private insurers and government programs for the same services.

Two prominent San Fernando Valley hospitals--Northridge Hospital Medical Center and Glendale Memorial Hospital--are expected to merge within the next few weeks with Catholic Healthcare West of San Francisco, making the 40-hospital chain one of the largest nonprofit systems in the state, hospital administrators said Tuesday. Catholic Healthcare said that it plans to buy Burbank-based Unihealth's network of eight Southern California hospitals, including Northridge and Glendale Memorial.

After several years of often-contentious organizing and negotiations, the Service Employees International Union has reached labor contract agreements with Catholic Healthcare West that cover 9,000 workers at 20 hospitals in California. The settlement, which is to be announced today, is the culmination of one of the biggest organizing drives of private-sector health workers in the state.

A hospital chain has bought 12 shares of Irvine Co. stock at $400,000 each, seizing a rare opportunity to grab a stake in Orange County's largest landowner. The nation's second-largest Catholic-owned hospital chain, Catholic Healthcare West of San Francisco, purchased the Irvine Co. stock for a total of $4.8 million.

A rare alliance of healthcare rivals — a giant insurance company, a major hospital chain and a large doctors group — has managed to reduce healthcare costs through a radical new strategy: working together. The collaboration among Blue Shield of California, Catholic Healthcare West and Hill Physicians Medical Group shaved more than $20 million in costs last year and prevented an insurance rate hike for public sector workers in Northern California. The three partners cite evidence that the quality of care also improved: Hospital stays were shorter, readmissions dropped and doctors and nurses kept closer tabs on patients.

Three months after acquiring Arroyo Grande Community Hospital and French Hospital Medical Center in San Luis Obispo, Universal Health Systems is selling them to Catholic Healthcare West. Catholic Healthcare West, which has 41 hospitals and medical centers in California, Arizona and Nevada, signed an agreement March 16 to purchase the hospitals. The sale is expected to be completed by May 31. Financial details weren't disclosed.

A woman arrives at the hospital with a condition called pulmonary hypertension. The arteries supplying her lungs are unable to deliver enough blood, which threatens their ability to delivery oxygen throughout her body. Making matters worse, she is 11 weeks pregnant, which puts additional strain on her weakened body. If the pregnancy continues, the woman surely will die. This was the situation confronting doctors last November at St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix.

Doctors who diagnose people with terminal illnesses would be required to immediately tell them about the right to refuse or withdraw from life-sustaining treatment under a measure approved Wednesday by state lawmakers. The proposal, which divided the medical community, was narrowly approved on the same day the Legislature passed a bid to ban employers from taking action against workers who legally use marijuana for medical purposes. The right-to-die legislation would require a doctor at the time of a terminal diagnosis to explain all options, when requested by the patient.

With time running out to overhaul California's healthcare system this year, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez are fashioning a high-stakes strategy to raise business and hospital taxes through a ballot measure that would circumvent defiant Republican lawmakers. "I think we're on the verge of doing something huge," Nuñez told The Times' editorial board Friday.

Catholic Healthcare West's $423-million settlement with former patients who claimed they were charged excessive fees won a judge's final approval, a lawyer for patients said. Superior Court Judge Richard A. Kramer in San Francisco approved the accord resolving claims for as many as 780,000 uninsured patients at Catholic Healthcare West hospitals, attorney Kelly M. Dermody said.

Hospital group Catholic Healthcare West has agreed to reimburse as many as 800,000 uninsured patients for excessive charges to settle a class-action price-gouging lawsuit. The suit claimed that the San Francisco-based healthcare provider, which owns 40 hospitals in California, Nevada and Arizona, routinely charged uninsured patients as much as five times the amount paid by private insurers and government programs for the same services.

A group of former patients on Tuesday sued Catholic Healthcare West, the state's largest nonprofit hospital chain, alleging that uninsured patients in California have been overcharged for their care compared with patients on discounted insurance plans. The class-action suit, which was organized by activist K.B. Forbes, named as plaintiffs three former patients of California Hospital Medical Center in Los Angeles.

WellPoint Health Networks Inc.'s Blue Cross of California unit and hospital operator Catholic Healthcare West settled a contract dispute over rate increases by signing a multiyear contract, Catholic Healthcare said. The two sides agreed on the contract after Catholic Healthcare West ran advertisements in major California papers saying Blue Cross' 4.4 million members could no longer be served at 30 hospitals it operates in California following expiration of their contract Tuesday.

Seeking to match consolidation in the healthcare industry, the Service Employees International Union has engineered a merger of its own. Union representatives said Wednesday that they combined two locals to create a single statewide unit to represent hospital and nursing-home workers in California. The 130,000-member SEIU United Healthcare Workers West will be more effective at bargaining and working on political issues, said Sal Rosselli, president of the merged local.

State Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer declined Thursday to intervene in the voluntary closure this week of a 209-bed Van Nuys hospital, despite pleas from a Los Angeles city councilman and a citizens group to take legal action. On Tuesday, San Francisco-based Catholic Healthcare West closed Northridge Hospital Medical Center on Sherman Way. A group of doctors has been trying to raise money to buy and operate the hospital.