Pacific Health’s plan to buy Anaheim (CA) Memorial meets with resistance

In spring 2007, hospital company Pacific Health Corp. agreed to purchase the nonprofit, 223-bed Anaheim (CA) Memorial Medical Center for $57.1 million. But the sale of a nonprofit hospital to a for-profit company must be approved by the state attorney general, and the purchase has run into opposition. At a public hearing, opponents of Pacific Health's purchase of Memorial contended that Pacific Health should not be expanding at a time when its current hospitals have been hit with so much criticism from regulators over the last year. Pacific Health's problems grew this week, as it was named in a civil lawsuit filed by Los Angeles City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo. He contended that the company was part of a scheme "to defraud the Medi-Cal and Medicare programs."