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San Diego County could be facing the fifth closure of a local hospital in the last 10 years.
After the Office of the Inspector General, under the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services, announced intentions May 8 to exclude Alvarado Hospital Medical Center from the federal Medicare and Medi-Cal programs, the hospital reported that exclusion could ultimately force it to close its doors to the 911,321 residents in its East County service area.
Payments from the government for seeing Medicare and Medi-Cal patients amount to about 51 percent of the hospital's revenue according to the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development. Tenet Health Corp., which owns Alvarado, and the hospital declined to provide revenue and profit figures.
The exchanges between the government and the hospital have stirred the more than 1,000 employees and 500-plus medical staff who work at the hospital, creating fear of job loss and morale problem, said Surgeon Ted Mazer, who is also president of the San Diego County Medical Society. Mazer has worked at the hospital for 18 years, and called the fears "unnecessary."
Alvarado spokeswoman Laura Gilbert said last week that no employees have resigned since the announcements.
The process of closing the La Mesa hospital would take at least a year if Alvarado were to take advantage of all opportunities to appeal, said Greg Demske, assistant inspector general for legal affairs at the federal OIG office. Officials have said...