Plymouth health purchasing troubled San Diego hospital; Valley doctors agree to buy Alvarado from Tenet Healthcare.

A new company formed by two San Fernando Valley doctors has agreed to take Tenet Healthcare Corp.'s troubled Alvarado Hospital Medical Center in San Diego off its hands. That leaves the Dallas-based hospital chain only two California hospitals left to divest.

Sherman Oaks-based Plymouth Health, owned by brothers Dr. Pejman Salimpour and Dr. Pedram Salimpour, has agreed to pay Tenet around $36.5 million for the 306-bed community hospital, with the deal expected to close by Dec. 31.

Tenet agreed earlier this year to sell Alvarado Hospital as part of a civil settlement with the U.S. Attorney's Office in San Diego and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to resolve allegations that physicians were being paid kickbacks to refer patients to Alvarado for treatment.

Under the purchase agreement, Plymouth Health has agreed to hire Alvarado Hospital employees who are in good standing. The Salimpours could not be reached for comment by press time. Plymouth is a subsidiary of Pedram Salimpour's CareNex Health Services, a health care technology and client services organization. Pejman Salimpour is a practicing physician and president-elect of the Los Angeles County Medical Association. District 6.

Tenet has been selling off hospitals over the past two years following disclosures that the company, formerly based in Santa Barbara, propped up its earnings by taking advantage of a billing loophole in the Medicare system. Tenet, once the county's leading hospital operator, plans to retain only four local hospitals, including USC University Hospital in Boyle Heights.

Tenet still has on the block a two-hospital unit in the San Fernando Valley, Encino-Tarzana Regional Medical Center, which it acquired in 1993. Structuring the sale has been difficult because a competing hospital owner, Hospital Corp. of America, had a minority interest in the Encino hospital. Tenet operates the hospitals in a joint venture that includes a REIT which owns the buildings and land.

After months of negotiation, Tenet in July bought out HCA's share for $28 million and is continuing talks with potential buyers, according to a spokesman. Nashville-based HCA, the nation's largest for-profit hospital chain, was taken private last month in a management-led buyout.

Staff reporter Deborah Crowe can be reached at [phone], ext. 232, or at [e-mail].