A year after private-equity-backed Noble Health closed two rural hospitals in Missouri, patients and former employees are facing a crisis in the wake of a collapsing local healthcare system and unpaid wages and benefits for millions. grappling with loss.
Hospitals in Audren and Callaway counties remain closed due to numerous lawsuits and ongoing state and federal investigations.
In March, Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey confirmed the civil investigation.
Bailey’s comments came weeks after the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Employee Benefits notified executives associated with Noble Health. startupin violation of federal law, sought to pay $5.4 million to cover unpaid employee health insurance claims. A 13-page letter detailing “interim findings” Obtained by KHN.
January letter confirms KHN’s previous report, which was informed that employees and patients explained the non-payment of salaries. Receive unexpected high medical bills. There is nothing to worry about, including cancer treatment. Noble Hospital and its corporate owners collected employee contributions for medical, dental and eye insurance in 2021 and 2022, but will not fund the insurance plan after that, according to a letter from federal investigators. I could not do it.
The owners and executives “were aware of the damage to the participants and, in some cases, were seeking to resolve individual participant complaints,” the letter said, adding, “The volume and severity of the complaints and bills received. Nevertheless,” he added, they did not respond. .
“Fucking” and “Everybody’s Dirty”
Former hospital lab technician Marissa Hagedorn has spent the past year starting a new job, caring for her 2-year-old son with spina bifida and negotiating over unpaid medical bills. I was. She told her KHN that the family owes at least $8,000 for her son Ryder’s professional treatment in St. Louis, of which $6,000 is in a collection, Hagedorn said as a Noble employee. , was repeatedly told that the employee’s health insurance would cover Ryder’s treatment. It wasn’t.
Noble “defiled everybody,” she said. “We just want some liability on this company that didn’t feel the need to act with us.” is common among former Noble employees a year after the hospital closed.
Former Fulton Hospital employee class action lawsuit It is intended to represent the hundreds of employees of both hospitals.
The Jan. 13 letter from federal officials has until Jan. 27 to respond from Noble corporate and hospital executives, as well as Platinum Neighbors, which acquired the hospital last April and took full responsibility. I was looking for The letter directs executives to contact government agencies “to remediate these violations, fund participant claims, and discuss ways to achieve compliance.”
Former employees say their bills have not yet been paid. Labor Department spokesperson Grant Vought said he could not comment on the ongoing investigation.
Separately, the Kansas Department of Labor is investigating Noble and Platinum’s failure to pay wages and severance pay to company employees. Agency spokesperson Becky Shaffer confirmed that hearings were held in early February about half a dozen cases totaling more than $1 million in unpaid wages and severance claims.
Dave Kitchens was one of those who filed a lawsuit against Noble Health. After working as a contract employee for a short period of time, Kitchens was hired as Corporate Controller in October 2021, taking on the role of Accounting, responsible for financial reporting and data analysis. Kitchens provided a recording of his hearing to KHN, and in the end lost wages, benefits, and severance pay he hopes to be paid more than $90,000. At the hearing, Kitchens told the administrative judge:
Kitchens, who has also been named as a trustee for federal investigations, said he does not belong to Noble’s management team. When Kansas Administrative Law Judge James Ward was asked whether he expected wages to be paid to Noble or to a second buyer, platinum, Kitchens replied, “Who is in charge? I don’t know.”
“I think there was a joke,” Kitchens said.
The “rabbit hole” of responsibility
Noble Released in December 2019 with executives who had never run a hospital, including Donald R. Peterson co-founder Prior to joining Noble, he had been accused of Medicare fraud. Peterson solved the case I pleaded not guilty and in August 2019 agreed to be barred from Medicare, Medicaid, and all other taxpayer-funded federal health programs for five years. According to the Inspector General’s Office of Health and Human Services.
The hospital will be closed by March 2022, Noble explained on social media. Including “technical issues” and need “Rebuild their operations” to keep the hospital financially viable. In April, Texas-based Platinum Neighbors paid $2 for its assets and all its liabilities. stock purchase agreement.
Despite being licensed nearly $20 million Court records show Noble had stopped paying his bills with federal covid-19 relief funds—a fund whose use has yet to be fully accounted for—before closing the hospital. Nursing institutions, laboratories that tested for the novel coronavirus, landscapers and other contractors are suing for millions of dollars.
In Audren County, where community members still want hospitals reopened or new hospitals built, county leaders filed a lawsuit to pay off a $1.8 million loan they made to Noble.Former Missouri Senator Jay Wasson also sued in SeptemberHe demanded repayment of a loan of 5 million yen.
Two Noble Health real estate companies have filed for bankruptcy this year. One of the Chapter 11 bankruptcy filings named assets of Fulton Hospital in Callaway County as assets, Listed about $4.9 million in debt.One third Bankruptcy filing by FMC Clinic Includes Noble Health as a code beta.
In the Kansas United States District Court, Midwestern Central Bank Sues Nueterra Capital A loan of over $9.6 million used by Noble to purchase Audren Hospital.Nueterra, a private equity and venture capital firm, will become a bank in 2022. Includes Noble as part of portfoliosign off as guarantor of Loan.
Federal investigators have named nearly a dozen people or entities associated with Noble Health as trustees, who they say are personally responsible for paying back millions of unpaid medical claims.that letter too Detailed Noble Health Ownership first time. Owners include William A. Solomon with 16.82% stake, Thomas W. Carter with 16.82% stake, Peterson Trust with 19.63% stake and NC Holdings with 46.72% stake.
NC Holdings is also listed in a stock transfer agreement with Platinum. some signatures Including Jeremy Tasset, CEO of Nueterra Capital.
Tasset did not respond to requests for comment on this article. In a March 2022 email to KHN, Nueterra Capital’s CEO said, “We are a minority shareholder in the property and have nothing to do with the operation of the hospital.” “Everything (including the property) has been sold to our subsidiary, Platinum Neighbors,” it wrote in an email. platinum team management.”
The owner and manager of the Peterson Trust identified by federal investigators is unknown. Peterson, who is listed in Noble’s state registration documents with director and other titles, did not respond to requests for comment for this article. He told KHN that he did not.
He said he owns 3% of the company, citing guidance from the Office of the Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.Federal regulators may exclude companies if someone is banned 5% or more.
In March 2022, Peterson founded Noble Health Services. It was “established to restructure ownership of multiple Noble entities,” federal investigators noted in a letter. According to one person, Peterson said he dissolved the company in July 2022. Missouri Business Filing.
September, Peterson Posted on LinkedIn He was “sitting in an Emirates lounge in Dubai” completing due diligence for “launching a new business.”
The 2013 OIG Recommendation states that “excluded individuals may not assume executive or leadership roles” and “provide other types of administrative and administrative services … federal health care programs and Unless it’s completely irrelevant.”
KHN examined the federal system It was meant to stop health care business managers and executives from repeatedly billing government health programs, but it turns out they didn’t.
The OIG maintains public lists of people and companies banned from all federal health care programs such as Medicare and Medicaid. KHN’s review found that the system had no oversights and was riddled with legal gray areas.
In response to KHN’s report, Democratic Oregon Senator Ron Wyden, chairman of the powerful Senate Finance Committee, said: is essential,” he said. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said the government needed to do more and “it’s also the private sector’s responsibility to do a better job of checking the exclusion list.”
“You can’t rely on one or the other to do everything,” Grassley said.
Public records show that Missouri hospitals have sold twice as much in recent months.Saint Pio of Pietrelcina Based in Oregon Notify state authorities I applied for a change of ownership in December and requested an extension of my hospital license, but was denied. In January, Audren County officials said: in that lawsuitrevealed another owner named Pasture Medical. Registered as a Wyoming company December 27, 2022.
Steve Bolin, director of the Regulatory and Licensing Division of the Missouri Department of Health and Elderly Services, said, “We didn’t come out of the rabbit hole about this. Bolin’s agency said it would support his agency in conducting a financial review.
“It’s probably not a bad idea for someone to dig a little deeper. It’s not a lot of change of ownership, but it takes the right people, including a very good CPA, to do it. [certified public accountants].”
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