Too Many Empty Beds Found on Medicare Review

By Walter F. Roche Jr.

A suburban Philadelphia hospital specializing in bariatric surgery has been cited during a Medicare re-certification review for going without a single inpatient on nearly 150 days.
Surveyors from the Pennsylvania Health Department concluded that the Forest Health Medical Center in Langhorne Bucks County failed to meet the requirements of the federally funded Medicare and Medicaid programs.
The hospital did not file a plan of correction acceptable to the state.
Surveyors examining hospital records found that the patient census was zero on 146 days over a 12 month period.
"The facility failed to function as a hospital," the report states.
The Pennsylvania facility is part of the Barix Clinics, which operates a similar facility in Ypsilanti Mich. According to the report the hospital is licensed for 23 medical/surgical beds.
Health is licensed for xxx beds but the records showed they went largely unoccupied.
State inspectors visited the facility on two separate days, March 5 and June 18, and on both of those days the in-patient census was zero.
The hospital, the report states, was "not primarily engaged in providing services to inpatients."
In the review of hospital records the surveyors found that the average daily census ranged from 1.2 to 3.3 patients.
Hospital officials did not respond for requests for comment.
Contact: wfrochejr999@gmail.com