An attorney for the hospital blames skyrocketing expenses and slumping revenue.
He says Pacifica gets sixty percent of its funding from Medi-Cal and twenty percent from Medicare for treatment including emergency care, occupational therapy and social services. Payments hospitals received from Medicare, Medi-Cal and private insurers declined rapidly last year.
In filing for Chapter 11, Pacifica hopes to reorganize as a "for-profit" medical center.
Industry experts say more hospitals are likely to file for chapter 11 in Southern California, where sixty percent of them operate at a loss.
Among the problems confronting hospitals is a thirty percent drop in lucrative elective surgeries, procedures ranging from hip replacements to hernia repairs.
Analysts say smaller, independent hospitals, amounting to about 20 percent of those in Los Angeles, are at greater risk of financial collapse.
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