California physician group buys closed Pacific Alliance Medical Center for $33 million
Allied Pacific IPA plans to convert the hospital to an urgent care center.
Beleaguered Pacific Alliance Medical Center, which closed last year due to the $100 million expense of meeting California's seismic standards and also faced a $42 million settlement over false claims allegations, has been sold to Allied Physicians of California for $33 million, according to the Los Angeles Business Journal.
The HMO physician group, also called Allied Pacific IPA, purchased the 90,000 square foot hospital in Chinatown of Los Angeles, the report said.
Allied Pacific plans to convert the hospital into an urgent care facility. Urgent care centers have become a nationwide trend as patient visits to these facilities have increased and the costs are lower than staffing and equipping primary care offices.
No one from Allied Pacific IPA could be immediately reached for comment.
The hospital closed in December 2017 after its board of directors said the 157-year-old hospital did not meet seismic standards to survive an earthquake.
In June 2017, Pacific Alliance Medical Center settled allegations by the Department of Justice that it had improper financial relationships with physicians by agreeing to pay $42 million.
Two months later the hospital disclosed it had suffered a massive cyber security ransomware breach, putting protected patient health information at risk.
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Email the writer: susan.morse@himssmedia.com
