Articles Tagged: Bankruptcies

A sale for the assets of Iowa City’s 150-year-old Mercy Hospital was underway in Chicago on Wednesday afternoon — although details about bidders and results weren’t immediately made public.

Mercy Iowa City has received at least one bid to compete with the University of Iowa’s $20 million offer to purchase substantially all its assets as part of the hospital’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy — triggering an auction on Wednesday morning in Chicago.

In the days after Mercy Iowa City filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, five staffing agencies contracted to supply the community hospital with temporary health care workers – like nurses – began pulling them them before the expiration of their contracts, threatening Mercy’s “ability to continue staffing the inpatient units.”

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Mercy Iowa City has arranged tours of its health care facilities next week for potential bidders interested in competing for its assets against the University of Iowa – which last month made an initial “stalking horse” bid of $20 million to buy the 150-year-old community hospital. Also, Mercy pensioners have obtained an attorney to ensure continued payment.

The same day in July that Mercy Iowa City’s largest bondholder petitioned a Johnson County judge to appoint a receiver to take control of its operations – a move hospital officials said compelled them to file for bankruptcy days later – a pair of recently terminated Mercy executives also filed suit against their former employer, accusing the hospital of ghosting them and shorting them hundreds of thousands.

Under revisions to proposed procedures for the historic sale of Mercy Iowa City, the 150-year-old community hospital might not remain a health care facility, might not go for $20 million, won’t give the University of Iowa the “bid protections” it once offered, and won’t complete the sale this month.

Mercy Iowa City is facing

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In March 2022, a Johnson County jury awarded more than $97.4 million to the family of a boy who sustained serious brain damage during his birth at an Iowa City hospital. The award, believed to be the largest medical malpractice judgment in Iowa history, was later reduced to $75.6 million.

Attorneys in the Boy Scouts of America bankruptcy case have reached a tentative settlement under which one of the organization’s largest insurers would contribute $800 million into a fund for victims of child sexual abuse.

Washington Prime Group’s chief executive officer said the bankruptcy allows the company to “right-size its balance sheet.”