Inquirer.com – Zurich DR

Author: Harold Brubaker

  • Pa. revokes license of Resources for Human Development after death of medically neglected Philadelphia resident

    Pa. revokes license of Resources for Human Development after death of medically neglected Philadelphia resident

    Pennsylvania regulators revoked Resources for Human Development’s license to operate homes for people with intellectual disabilities in Southeastern Pennsylvania after medical neglect led to the February death of a Philadelphia resident, state officials confirmed Friday.

    RHD, a Philadelphia-based human services provider with 91 homes in the region, has the right to appeal the revocation and to continuing operating during that process. The state, which will conduct more unannounced inspections during the appeal, said RHD serves 136 residents in Southeastern Pennsylvania.

    The Sept. 22 revocation comes about two years after RHD was taken over by fast-growing Reading nonprofit Inperium Inc.

    RHD it was on the verge of bankruptcy at the time. Inperium also owns Supportive Concepts for Families, a Reading nonprofit with services similar to RHD’s that has been operating under a revoked license since April 2025.

    Officials at Inperium and RHD did not respond Friday to emails or voicemails requesting comment.

    Inperium Inc. has had long-running regulatory woes.

    Investigators of the February death at an RHD house found “serious neglect and systemic failure by RHD to ensure health safety, timely medical intervention, and adherence to [individual support plan] requirements,” according to documents provided by the state Department of Human Services .

    The redacted documents did not reveal details on what had happened to the individual, who was found dead on the morning of Feb. 23.

    An assistant regional director had alerted RHD’s CEO and other top leaders in January to the individual’s need for therapeutic and behavioral support, but RHD did not seek a medical evaluation, the documents say.

    RHD provides services in 12 states, employs 2,800 people, and had $280 million in revenue in the year that ended June 30, 2025, according to a recent bond offering statement. Fiscal 2026 financial results are not yet public.

    Following the Philadelphia death, RHD management failed to submit an acceptable plan to correct regulatory violations, leading regulators to issue their own on Sept. 2. It’s not clear what happened in the period leading up to the revocation on Sept. 22.

    Last year, state regulators revoked Supportive Concepts’ license following at least four deaths, 11 abuse incidents, and dozens of cases of neglect at Supportive Concepts’ homes in the year ended February 2025.

    That revocation impacted operations in 15 northeastern Pennsylvania counties, including Berks. Under the terms of the revocation, the organization cannot open any new homes or accept new clients in existing properties.

    Seventeen Supportive concepts facilities in western Pennsylvania have been operating under provisional license since February. The provisional status requires them to implement a correction plan. As of August 26, the homes were still operating under a provisional license.

  • St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children named Claire Alminde permanent president

    St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children named Claire Alminde permanent president

    St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children named Claire Alminde permanent president on Thursday, following a period of leadership turmoil at the North Philadelphia safety-net institution.

    Alminde, who will continue to serve as chief nursing officer, had taken over in January from another acting president.

    “Claire brings a unique combination of frontline clinical experience and hospital leadership, along with firsthand knowledge of what it takes to operate a hospital like St. Chris that plays such a vital role in Philadelphia and beyond,” St. Chris said in an email.

    One of Alminde’s tasks will be to work with leaders at Nemours Children’s Health, Jefferson Health, and Temple Health to build an alliance announced in July to secure the future of St. Chris, which struggles financially because most of its patients have low-paying Medicaid insurance.

    St. Chris’ chief nursing officer, Claire Alminde, has been named president of the North Philadelphia safety-net provider.St. Christopher's Hospital for Children

    Alminde was the third interim or acting executive appointed to the top management position at the nonprofit hospital since February 2024 and its fourth leader since 2020.

    Drexel University and Tower Health have owned St. Chris in a 50-50 joint venture since 2019. Tower oversees day-to-day operations.

    “After several years of leadership changes, this appointment gives St. Christopher’s strong, permanent leadership from someone who knows our hospital, our people and the community we serve incredibly well,” Tower CEO Michael Stern said in a message to employees. “Claire understands what makes St. Chris such a special place and what it will take to move us forward.”

    St. Chris’ most recent financial results showed that it had an operating profit of $1.1 million in fiscal 2025, compared with a $31.6 million loss the year before.

    The safety-net provider received a $76 million revenue boost from its inclusion for the first time in a program that taxes Philadelphia hospitals and uses the money to increase the government’s Medicaid funding for facilities that disproportionately care for low-income patients.

  • Independence Blue Cross settled a Medicare Advantage false claims suit for $22.5 million

    Independence Blue Cross settled a Medicare Advantage false claims suit for $22.5 million

    Independence Blue Cross, Philadelphia’s largest Medicare Advantage insurer, agreed to pay $22.5 million to settle a whistleblower lawsuit alleging that the company submitted inaccurate diagnoses for enrollees to increase payments, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania said Wednesday.

    The IBX settlement, like several others this year, centers on how private Medicare insurers evaluate the health of the individuals in their plans, a process known as risk adjustment. The government gives insurers more money for sicker patients.

    “This matter was not about the quality of care our members received. It involved differing views regarding certain documentation and reporting requirements under the Medicare Advantage risk adjustment program,” Independence said in an email. The company did not admit wrongdoing.

    Federal officials said that for five years ending in 2020, IBX used nurses to review patient records and look for additional medical conditions that could be submitted to regulators. That generated additional payments for the insurer under Medicare Advantage’s risk adjustment models.

    According to the government, the chart reviewers also found diagnoses that were not supported by the patients’ records, but IBX failed to withdraw those diagnoses. Had the company done so, it would have had to return money to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

    “Many major health plans have faced similar government scrutiny regarding Medicare Advantage risk adjustment requirements and practices, reflecting industry-wide challenges in the application of these standards,” Independence said in an email.

    IBX’s settlement followed an agreement in May by Aetna, the Philadelphia region’s second-largest Medicare Advantage insurer, to pay $117.7 million for coding violations.

    Nationally, two settlements this year topped half a billion dollars. Kaiser Permanente, a California-based insurance company with a large hospital business, agreed to a $556 million settlement in January, and Villages Health System LLC, a Florida provider group, settled for $541.5 million.

    The whistleblower, a former IBX employee, will collect $3.8 million of the settlement amount. Government and company officials signed the settlement Sept. 11.

  • Temple Health posted a $22.7 million operating profit in fiscal 2026

    Temple Health posted a $22.7 million operating profit in fiscal 2026

    Temple University Health System saw a $22.7 million operating profit in the year that ended June 30, up slightly from $21.9 million in fiscal 2025, the North Philadelphia nonprofit told bondholders this week.

    The result showed solid business operations while the system was “navigating intense professional liability and inflationary headwinds in a competitive Philadelphia healthcare market,” Temple said in an email to The Inquirer commenting on the results.

    Here are more details:

    Revenue: Temple’s total revenue rose nearly 10%, to $3.62 billion in fiscal 2026 from $3.29 billion the year before. Outpatient surgeries and cancer services were among the significant contributors to revenue growth from patient care, Temple said in its notice to bondholders.

    Expenses: Insurance expenses climbed $19.3 million because of “higher professional liability costs related to inflationary legal expenses and the accelerated settlement of claims to mitigate rising awards by local courts,” Temple said.

    Notable: Temple reported a 12% decline in cardiology procedures in fiscal 2026, to 4,654 from 5,274 the year before, because an unspecified number of physicians left. “As of late summer, 100% of these cardiology positions have been successfully filled,” Temple said.

  • Penn Medicine and IBX form new company to open Philly-area ambulatory surgery centers

    Penn Medicine and IBX form new company to open Philly-area ambulatory surgery centers

    The University of Pennsylvania Health System and Independence Blue Cross, the Philadelphia area’s largest insurer, have formed a new company with plans to open at least 18 regional surgery centers.

    The for-profit company announced Thursday is part of an effort by Penn and IBX to bring lower-cost procedures closer to patients, while maintaining quality and safety, officials said.

    For Penn, the venture represents a financial leap, because it means the nonprofit health system will intentionally accept significantly lower payments for part of its business.

    “We need to work on affordability in healthcare. It’s too expensive. It’s bankrupting families,” Penn health system CEO Kevin Mahoney said.

    Medicare and private insurers like IBX who pay the healthcare bills “want to move to less costly settings,” he said, and Penn needs to be ready to capture that business.

    IBX’s CEO Kelly Munson emphasized the importance of partnerships to tackle rising healthcare costs. She noted that shifting care to ambulatory surgery centers from hospital departments can generate as much as a 50% discount.

    “The healthcare affordability crisis won’t be solved alone,” Munson said.

    A third investor in the company is Regent Surgical, a Tennessee firm with private equity investors that will manage the local centers. Its tasks include forcing efficiency. Regent already manages 40 sites in 15 states. Penn clinicians will provide services.

    Regent’s CEO, Travis Messina, called the new company the first of its kind nationally. “I’ve yet to see one that has involved both a payer, a provider, as well as a management company,” he said.

    Key details — such as the for-profit company’s name, the ownership percentages, and the time frame for opening the anticipated facilities — were not disclosed.

    The first local facility is expected to open next year, but officials did not say where.

    The Penn-IBX initiative doesn’t fit into the typical playbook for ASCs, said Dan Grauman, a healthcare consultant based in the Philadelphia area.

    Usually, physicians are also involved as owners. “They’re part owners of these surgery centers, and they drive the volume,” said Grauman, a managing director at VMG Health, a national healthcare consulting firm.

    Asked if non-Penn doctors could be involved in or be investors in the new centers, Penn and IBX said they are evaluating all options for future growth.

    The case for more ASCs in the Philadelphia region

    Southeastern Pennsylvania already has more than 100 ambulatory surgery centers, many of them specialized in gastroenterology and mainly focused on colonoscopies, state heath department data show.

    Yet the region lags the nation in the shift to lower-cost surgery centers.

    Data provided by Regent show that in 2023 and 2024 only 33% of ASC-eligible procedures in the Philadelphia region had migrated to the ASCs, compared to 56% nationally. Regent uses data from Kythera Labs, a company that analyzes health insurance claims.

    Messina attributed the slower adoption of surgery centers to the concentration of physicians employed by local health systems. “That tends to limit the amount of ASC availability in markets across the country,” he said.

    Historically, Philadelphia-area health systems tended to concentrate services in their hospitals, which have expensive fixed overhead, and in facilities that charge hospital rates. Executives focused on protecting revenue, so they could maintain broad hospital offerings, rather than on offering lower-cost options.

    Healthcare trends now increasingly are pushing care into the community. Mahoney noted that half of Penn’s chemotherapy and infusion services are provided in patients’ homes. Close to two thirds of Penn’s $13.6 billion in revenue is from outpatient care, he said.

    “We’ve been trying to deconstruct away from hospitals for a long time, and this is a natural step on that continuum,” he said.

    Penn previously invested an undisclosed amount of money in the Ambulatory Cardiovascular Center of Pennsylvania near King of Prussia. That facility is a partnership that also includes Cardiology Consultants of Philadelphia, Cardiovascular Logistics, and SCA Health.

    To incentivize more surgery centers and reduce costs for employers, IBX introduced a policy this year that it will only pay for certain procedures if they are done in a low-cost ASC. At the same time, IBX does not force patients to change doctors if their provider does not have privileges at an appropriate ASC.

    How Penn could go about opening centers

    Mahoney called the initial target of 18 locations the start.

    “Eighteen is half of what I want to do. These are not mega hospital buildings,” he said. “They’re going to be convenient. They’re going to be spread throughout the five counties, easy for people to get to, close to their homes.”

    The new centers won’t always require new construction, as is typically the case for Penn’s large outpatient centers, such as the one going up in Montgomeryville.

    The new ASC company could also acquire existing ASCs or change the billing practice at a Penn surgery center that currently charges higher hospital rates, Messina said.

    A surgery center on the campus of Penn’s Doylestown Hospital closed last year. Penn could relaunch it under the new company.

    New Jersey could also see new surgery centers from the Penn expansion.

  • Penn picked first three faculty spinouts for early stage StartUP investments

    The University of Pennsylvania picked the first three faculty-founded companies for early stage investments from its newly established $10 million StartUP fund, the university said Wednesday.

    The three companies are working in maternal health, advanced radio-frequency filtering technology, and AI-powered drug discovery.

    Each is receiving the maximum investment of $250,000 from the fund launched in December to make seed investments in companies founded by university researchers.

    “Penn researchers are developing technologies with the potential to address some of the most important challenges facing society today, and many of these solutions have the potential to create entirely new markets,” John Swartley, Penn’s chief innovation officer, said in an announcement.

    Here are some details on the three companies:

    • Vasowatch is developing a non-invasive monitoring system to predict the risk of maternal postpartum hemorrhage, a leading cause of maternal death. Its cofounders are Penn Nursing adjunct professor Stefanie Modri and former Penn Engineering faculty James Weimer. The company will use the money to fine-tune the product and to pay for a clinical trial anticipated to start next year.
    • OneFiltr, cofounded by Troy Olsson, a professor in the School of Engineering and Applied Science, has a compact device designed to allow a cell phone to isolate and process specific frequencies. The company will use its investment to further development of its device for evaluation by aerospace and defense companies.
    • Peptaris Inc. has an AI platform for evaluating and developing drugs based on peptides, which are building blocks for proteins. Cofounders are César de la Fuente and Marcelo Der Torossian Torres. The StartUP investment is part of a larger seed round that Peptaris is using refine its model and evaluate its first candidates. Peptaris said in an SEC filing June that it raised $4 million from investors.
  • Redeemer Health CEO Greg Wozniak has resigned from the Montgomery County health system

    Redeemer Health CEO Greg Wozniak has resigned from the Montgomery County health system

    Redeemer Health CEO Greg Wozniak has resigned from the financially troubled nonprofit Montgomery County health system after a little more than two years, Redeemer announced Thursday.

    Replacing Wozniak on an interim basis is chief transformation officer Jim Logue, who has held the role since early 2025.

    Redeemer has posted operating losses every fiscal year from 2017 to 2025. It hasn’t yet posted financial results for the fiscal year that ended in June.

    “Jim and his team will work with our financial advisors and counsel to implement a reorganization of the Redeemer system to assure its continued viability and a sustainable business model,” board chair William R. Sasso said in an internal communication obtained by The Inquirer.

    “This reorganization is expected to involve some significant organizational changes which will be announced in the coming weeks as they are finalized,” the note said.

    More than four years ago, Redeemer announced that it was seeking what it called a “strategic partner” for its 239-bed hospital in Meadowbrook, near Abington, but nothing came of that effort.

    Redeemer also operates a home care business, nursing homes, senior apartments.

    Redeemer announced additional personnel changes Thursday in its internal communication, including the departure at the end of this month of chief financial officer Kim Cummings. Former CFO Michael Keen is returning to that position.

    Another returning executive is Donald Friel, a former executive vice president tapped to assist Logue.

    Diane Derr, who has been at Redeemer for 44 years, is being promoted to chief administrative officer from chief nursing officer.

    Editors note: This article has been updated to correct Derr’s history with Redeemer.

  • Rural Health Transformation Fund leaves gaping hole in finances at Pa.’s Geisinger Health

    Rural Health Transformation Fund leaves gaping hole in finances at Pa.’s Geisinger Health

    Geisinger Health expects to lose more than $180 million in revenue next year when deep cuts to Medicaid start impacting the nonprofit health system with 10 hospitals in a largely rural stretch of central and northeastern Pennsylvania.

    The Rural Health Transformation Program — meant to soften the blows from the cuts imposed by Congress under Republican’s so-called “One Big, Beautiful Bill Act” or H.R. 1 — offers limited relief. Geisinger expects to collect $6.7 million of the $193 million allotted to Pennsylvania.

    “It’s given us some money for some critical infrastructure that we need,” such as a CT scanner or an MRI machine for hospitals that serve rural counties, CEO Terry Gilliland said in an interview last month.

    But much of the money being distributed through the Rural Health Transformation Program, or RHTP, isn’t going to help rural hospitals because it wasn’t designed to do that. No more than 15% of the funding can be used to reimburse providers for healthcare services.

    That has left Geisinger, which is owned by California-based Kaiser Health, in a tough spot: “H.R. 1 is taking a big old chunk out of our hide, and there’s just no way for RHTP to fill the hole,” he said.

    Nationally, $911 billion in Medicaid cuts are anticipated over a decade, with $137 billion is expected to come from rural areas, according to KFF, a nonprofit that researches health policy. KFF’s analysis did not provide state estimates for rural losses.

    The Rural Health Transformation Fund totals $50 billion over five years. Pennsylvania would receive $965 million if it were to get the same amount each year as it did this year. Philadelphia-area health systems haven’t received money from the fund yet, but could participate in the future through projects that benefit rural Pennsylvania.

    Where the money is going

    The rural health fund is an incomplete response to the revenue hole created by H.R. 1, said Katherine Hempstead, a senior policy officer at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, a Princeton-based philanthropy focused on healthcare advocacy and research.

    “It is mostly targeted to upstream projects designed to make rural healthcare more efficient in the long run. They may or may not be successful,” she said.

    So far, Pennsylvania has provided a breakdown of how it is spending the first $42.2 million of its first year award.

    All but $2 million went to technology and infrastructure projects, including critical needs like new roofs, HVAC systems, elevator repairs, and the repair of a collapsed sewer line.

    On the technology side, new imaging equipment was popular in the first funding round.

    With $3.7 million from that round, Geisinger got a new X-ray machine for its Bloomsburg hospital, new CT units for Jersey Shore and Lewisburg hospitals, and an upgraded compounding pharmacy for its flagship hospital in Danville.

    Geisinger applied for $3 million from a forthcoming second round and plans to use the money for a special EMS vehicle, transport vans for senior care, telehealth equipment, and other capital equipment, if it is approved.

    In addition to technology and infrastructure, Pennsylvania is focusing the rural funding on workforce development, maternal health services, behavioral health services, aging and access, and emergency medical services and transportation.

    Geisinger’s approach to filling its financial hole

    Geisinger’s estimated $180 million revenue loss next year has three main drivers. They are limits on how much federal money the state can generate through provider taxes, changes to the supplemental payments for hospitals with large numbers of Medicaid patients, and an increase in the uninsured population caused by new Medicaid enrollment rules.

    In 2025, Geisinger had about $10 billion in revenue. That’s up from $7.7 billion in 2023, that last full year before it became part of Risant Health, a new nonprofit created by Kaiser in 2023 to acquire community health systems.

    Already this year, Geisinger has seen a $10 million a month increase in charity care and bad debt write-offs, Gilliland said, which he attributed to people not being able to afford individual Affordable Care Act plans after the enhanced tax subsidies expired.

    Geisinger also expects a $47 million loss of revenue from the federal 340b drug discount program.

    “How many more of these hits can I take? The answer is not very many,” Gilliland said.

    The health system is focused on becoming more efficient.

    “There’s some optimism that says we could find some way to have artificial intelligence do some of the tasks that we typically throw humans at,” Gilliland said.

    He hopes to avoid want layoffs, given that Geisinger is often the largest employer in its communities.

    “I’d really like to figure out ways to fill the hole without having people lose their jobs because that has a much more devastating impact on the local economy,” he said.

  • Highmark reached an agreement to keep Rothman Orthopaedics in network after Oct. 1

    Highmark reached an agreement to keep Rothman Orthopaedics in network after Oct. 1

    Highmark reached an agreement to keep Rothman Orthopaedics in network for Pennsylvania customers of Highmark Blue Shield plans and federal employee health programs after Oct. 1, the two companies said Wednesday.

    The Pittsburgh-based insurer had issued a termination notice over the summer, alleging that about a half-dozen Rothman surgeons were abusing a federal process designed to protect patients from unforeseen out-of-network bills.

    The dispute centered on the use of out-of-network physician assistants by Rothman surgeons who do not have residents or fellows working for them and need help treating patients.

    Highmark said that the practice violated a contract that took effect at the beginning of last year and that the use of arbitration under the federal No Surprises Act generated extraordinarily large payments for the physician assistants.

    The physician assistants worked for separate company that Rothman, a practice, had no control over, a Rothman official said earlier this month.

  • Look up 100 top-paid employees at nonprofit health systems in the Philadelphia region in 2024

    Look up 100 top-paid employees at nonprofit health systems in the Philadelphia region in 2024

    Pay and benefits typically account for more than half the total costs in hospital systems at a time when healthcare costs are rising sharply in the Philadelphia region and nationally.

    Local nonprofit health systems reported compensation ranging from $1.2 million to $3.7 million in 2024 for the 100 highest-paid employees listed in their most recent federal nonprofit tax returns. The ranking excludes system CEOs.

    Meanwhile, employers are expecting insurance increases approaching 10% for the coming year, according to several national surveys by benefits consultants. Experts cite increased use of healthcare services, widespread use of expensive specialty drugs, and rising hospital prices as key factors leading to overall rising benefit costs.

    Clinicians accounted for 60 spots in The Inquirer’s top 100 ranking, which is based on compensation reported in dozens of 990 tax forms from Philadelphia-area hospitals, affiliated physician groups, and other related entities.

    Highly specialized neurosurgeons accounted for the highest number of top-paid clinicians, followed by cardiac and cardiothoracic surgeons and orthopedic surgeons.

    Chief financial officers and chief operating officers were well represented in the management ranks.

    The region’s largest health system also claimed its highest-paid non-CEO, Jefferson Health president and physician Baligh R. Yehia. His $3.7 million in compensation also topped that of all but two CEOs, as disclosed in a previous Inquirer analysis.

    Thomas Jefferson University, which is Jefferson Health’s parent entity, had 30 executives and physicians in The Inquirer’s top 100. The Jefferson group includes four executives who left during or before 2024, but not salaries reported through the Lehigh Valley Health Network, which Jefferson acquired in August of that year.

    Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia had the second-largest number of employees in the top 100, with 18, including surgeons and numerous top executives, such as CFO, general counsel, and head of human resources.

    Virtua was third, with nine employees, mainly surgeons.

    Across the region, 176 nonprofit health system employees received at least $1 million in total compensation in 2024. That amounts to one in five employees in The Inquirer’s database of more than 800 people.

    IRS rules require nonprofits to report compensation for officers, highest-paid employees, and employees with a certain level of responsibility.

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