March 31st, 2010

Reports the Patriot-News:

It’s not an ideal thing for a company to post on its home page: Select Medical v. The New York Times.

But Lower Allen Twp.-based Select has done that as a result of a Feb. 10 Times article that alleges poor quality and lax oversight in the long-term acute-care industry, and portrays Select as the poster child.

“I don’t consider that a serious piece of journalism. I consider it sensationalistic,” Select CEO Robert Ortenzio said Monday.

The article prompted U.S. Sens. Chuck Grassley and Max Baucus to ask the Government Accountability Office to look into the allegations, including claims that Select has low levels of staffing. Baucus, a Democrat from Montana, and Grassley, a Republican from Iowa, head a committee that oversees Medicare.

Select is the nation’s leading operator of long-term acute-care hospitals, with 89 facilities in 25 states. Such facilities are specialized hospitals that care for former hospital patients who have become stable, but are too sick for a nursing home.

Select said it has provided all the information requested by the senators.

Its Web site presents a rebuttal of the Times article, which Select called “inaccurate, misleading and sensationalistic.”

Read more.