Patients and former employees are still grappling with unpaid wages and hospital bills a year after private-equity backed Noble Health abruptly shuttered two rural hospitals in Missouri, Kaiser Health News reported March 22.
The hospitals in Audrain and Callaway counties remain closed amid a slew of lawsuits and state and federal investigations.
Executives tied to Noble Health, backed by private equity group Nueterra Capital, have been notified to pay $5.4 million to cover unpaid employee insurance claims, the report said.
Noble Health, which won a Shkreli Award for being among the "worst examples of profiteering and dysfunction in healthcare," launched in December 2019 with executives who had never run a hospital, including Donald Peterson, who had previously been accused of Medicare fraud, the report said. By March 2022, the hospitals had been closed and sold for $2.
In recent months, the Missouri hospitals appear to have been sold twice more, according to public records.
"We haven't come out of the rabbit hole on this one," said Steve Bollin, director of the division of regulation and licensure for the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services. "It's probably not a bad idea that someone takes a little bit deeper dive."
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