Prisma Health


Prisma Health is a not-for-profit health organization in South Carolina and Tennessee, formed by the merging of Palmetto Health and the Greenville Health System in November 2017. Its headquarters are in Greenville, South Carolina.
In 2024, Prisma Health announced a merger with Tennessee-based Blount Memorial Hospital, marking the first time Prisma Health has extended access to its services outside of South Carolina.

History

The Greenville Health Authority owns healthcare facilities managed by Prisma Health, which leases and operates them as Prisma Health-Upstate. Greenville based members of the South Carolina General Assembly stated in 2021 that they wished for GHA to directly supervise and manage the Prisma-run facilities, as well as to make it clear that the GHA and not Prisma has authority over the doctors. However, Act 432 under which GHA operates gives no such authority to the GHA Board of Trustees. The GHA Board only has the authority to assess the compliance of Prisma Health-Upstate with the terms of the Lease. Operations of Prisma Health - Upstate, including the supervision of its employees and physicians, are the responsibility of the Management and Board of Prisma Health.

Medicare Fraud

In 2013, the U.S. Department of Justice won a $237 million judgement against the Tuomey Healthcare system, then an independent organization, for violations of the Stark Law and the False Claims Act. The decade-long lawsuit was triggered by a whistleblower complaint by Michael Drakeford, MD under the qui tam provision of the Act. Drakeford was among 19 surgeons involved in the billing of illegal referral fees to Medicare. The size of the judgement crushed Tuomey, which subsequently sought to merge with other organizations and it later merged with Palmetto in 2016.

Hospitals

  • Prisma Health Baptist Easley Hospital
  • Prisma Health Greenville Memorial Hospital
  • Prisma Health Greer Memorial Hospital
  • Prisma Health Laurens Memorial Hospital
  • Prisma Health North Greenville Hospital
  • Prisma Health Oconee Memorial Hospital
  • Prisma Health Patewood Hospital
  • Prisma Health Hillcrest Hospital
  • Prisma Health Richland Hospital
  • Prisma Health Baptist Hospital
  • Prisma Health Baptist Parkridge Hospital
  • Prisma Health Tuomey Hospital
  • Prisma Health Blount Memorial Hospital

    Specialty Hospitals

The Specialty Hospitals operated by Prisma Health include:
  • Prisma Health Children's Hospital - Midlands
  • Prisma Health Children's Hospital - Upstate
  • Prisma Health Heart Hospital
  • Prisma Health Richland Springs Hospital
  • Prisma Health Marshall I. Pickens Hospital

    Attempted Acquisition

In March of 2020, Prisma Health and LifePoint Health announced they had signed an agreement for Prisma Health–Midlands to acquire KershawHealth in Camden, South Carolina and Providence Health in Columbia, South Carolina.
A part of LifePoint Health, KershawHealth consists of facilities in Camden, Elgin, Lugoff, and Kershaw, including a 119-bed Medical Center and a 20-bed Geriatric Psychiatric Unit in Camden, Outpatient Center and Urgent Care in Elgin, Sleep Diagnostics Center, and a Physical Therapy Unit.
Providence Health consists of two hospitals in Columbia, a freestanding Emergency Room in Fairfield County and multiple physician practices, rehabilitation centers, sleep centers, imaging and diagnostics labs, and other services. Providence Health's downtown Columbia hospital specializes in high acuity care, while its Northeast Columbia campus recently transitioned from a specialty facility to a full-service community hospital.
The acquisition was dropped due to significant delays and challenges by the Federal Trade Commission and state regulatory authorities. The hospitals were then acquired by the Medical University of South Carolina.