Universal Health Services

Company history

Alan B. Miller, who currently serves as the company’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, founded Universal Health Services, Inc. in 1979 after he engineered a financial turnaround of American Medicorp, only to lose the control of the company in a hostile takeover by Humana. The next day, Miller founded UHS with $3.2 million from venture capitalists and $750,000 put up by himself and several former American Medicorp employees who decided to follow Miller into his new venture. Within 18 months of its founding, UHS would own four hospitals and have management contracts with two additional hospitals.

Facilities

According to their annual report for fiscal year 2015, UHS is running the following facilities:

Outpatient Behavioral Health Care Facilities

Surgical Hospitals, Ambulatory Surgery Centers and Radiation Oncology Centers

Hospital licenses

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) threatened the Rancho Springs Medical Center (Murrieta) and Inland Valley Regional Medical Center (Wildomar) in California with decertification in June 2010 while the State of California warned of a possible hospital license revocation. Universal Health Services implemented a program to address all concerns and in November 2011, the two hospitals passed a CMS Certification Survey. As a result, CMS rescinded its termination notice and the California Department of Public Health withdrew its license revocation notice.

Allegations of noncompliance with same-sex visitation law

According to a petition started on change.org by Terri-Ann Simonelli of Henderson, Nevada, Spring Valley Hospital (owned and operated by UHS) claimed that their policy required power of attorney for a same-sex partner to make medical decisions on behalf of their partner. If true, this would seemingly violate new Department of Health and Human Services rules enabling same-sex partners to make said decisions, with or without power of attorney.

Fraudulent medicaid claims

In September 2012, UHS and its subsidiaries, Keystone Education and Youth Services LLC and Keystone Marion LLC d/b/a Keystone Marion Youth Center agreed to pay over $6.9 million to resolve allegations that they submitted false and fraudulent claims to Medicaid. Between October 2004 and March 2010, the entities allegedly provided substandard psychiatric counseling and treatment to adolescents in violation of the Medicaid requirements. The United States alleged that UHS falsely represented Keystone Marion Youth Center as a residential treatment facility providing inpatient psychiatric services to Medicaid enrolled children, when in fact it was a juvenile detention facility. The United States further alleged that neither a medical director nor licensed psychiatrist provided the required direction for psychiatric services or for the development of initial or continuing treatment plans. The settlement further resolved allegations that the entities filed false records or statements to Medicaid when they filed treatment plans that falsely represented the level of services that would be provided to the patients.

Buzzfeed investigation

On December 7, 2016, Buzzfeed published a report detailing questionable practices within UHS psychiatric facilities. The report includes allegations of holding nonthreatening patients against their will, manipulation misinterpretation of patient testimonies to fit the guidelines to involuntary confinement, aggressive staff layoffs in hospitals and understaffing, needless deaths of patients due to understaffing and misprescription of medication, "violating a patient’s right to be discharged or holding a patient without the proper documentation", and unnecessary extension of stay times to the maximum Medicare payout. UHS denied the conclusions of the report; its stock fell approximately 12% after publication.