Articles Tagged: MercyOne

A committee representing the bankrupt Mercy Iowa City has filed a complaint against its former managing partner MercyOne – along with the president it appointed to lead the community hospital – in hopes of recovering at least $55 million for alleged “breach of contract, unjust enrichment, breach of fiduciary duty, and negligent misrepresentation.”

In both defense and attack mode as a lawsuit against it looms, MercyOne has asked a higher court to weigh in on the recent dismissal of its appeal of Mercy Iowa City’s bankruptcy liquidation plan while also denying the defunct hospital documents it wants for any lawsuit it files against MercyOne.

Although MercyOne for nearly two years has criticized a bankrupt Mercy Iowa City for not paying its outstanding $31,524 bill -- citing that debt repeatedly as grounds to fight Mercy’s liquidation plan and demand thousands of documents and emails -- MercyOne now is refusing the hospital’s payment.

In seeking its own batch of records from a bankrupt Mercy Iowa City — which last week won a court order for voluminous documents in its ongoing liquidation battle — the community hospital’s former managing affiliate MercyOne is airing new details about backroom discussions, discord, and deals that precipitated Mercy Iowa City’s downfall.

A federal judge this week ordered MercyOne to produce a long list of records associated with its six-year management of the bankrupt Mercy Iowa City after a committee overseeing the hospital’s liquidation accused the former managing partner of withholding documents and details about what led to Mercy Iowa City’s “swift financial decline.”

A U.S. District Court judge on Monday dismissed MercyOne’s appeal of a liquidation plan for the bankrupt Mercy Iowa City hospital it managed for years -- a plan MercyOne opposed, in part, because it left the Des Moines-based health care system exposed to potential lawsuits.

Just 28.3 percent of Iowans had received the flu vaccine as of Dec. 20, which would be the lowest rate in at least 7 years

University of Iowa Health Care’s new $280 million deal to expand its cancer-care reach into Central and Western Iowa is about better serving patients in the midst of a statewide “cancer crisis” and is “not a play to have more and more patients come to us in Iowa City,” UIHC officials told the Board of Regents on Tuesday.

In arguing its appeal of a Mercy Iowa City liquidation plan that releases thousands of people and entities from potential lawsuits tied to the community hospital’s demise, its former manager MercyOne said a judge erred and overstepped in confirming the plan.

In the days since Mercy Iowa City’s bondholders raised concerns about dwindling assets available for distribution through a liquidation trust, attorneys, consultants, and advisers for the bankrupt hospital, its creditors, and its pensioners have inundated the court with “final” fee requests totaling nearly $13.4 million.

Three days after asking a judge to get involved in the delayed distribution of Mercy Iowa City’s liquidated assets -- accusing the bankrupt hospital’s management team of poor communication and miscalculation in stalling payments -- Mercy’s bondholders last week finally got back some of the long-sought $62.8 million they’re owed.

Nearly two months after a bankruptcy judge confirmed a liquidation plan for the former Mercy Iowa City’s tens of millions in assets, and more than a month after that plan went into effect, secured bondholders “have yet to receive a single ‘effective date’ distribution.”

MercyOne — former managing partner of the bankrupt Mercy Iowa City — plans to appeal a judge’s decision earlier this month to confirm a Chapter 11 liquidation plan for the insolvent community hospital that leaves MercyOne vulnerable to lawsuits.

A federal bankruptcy judge on Friday afternoon confirmed a Chapter 11 plan of liquidation for the former Mercy Iowa City hospital, despite push back from its former managing partner MercyOne — which now, under the plan, remains exposed to future lawsuits.

In the face of objections from MercyOne — the Des Moines area health care system that for six years provided management over a troubled Mercy Iowa City — a federal judge is leaning toward approving a long-negotiated liquidation plan for the now-bankrupt community hospital that exposes MercyOne to liability and lawsuits.