Health Care and Medicine

Casey Greene will become market president for UnityPoint Health-Cedar Rapids later this month as current president and chief executive officer Michelle Niermann assumes a role as chief operating officer overseeing hospitals in five cities.

Accusing Mercy Iowa City Hospital of misdirecting blame for its “prolonged, observed deterioration over the course of several years” that brought it to “being liquidated through a bankruptcy fire sale process for a mere $20 million,” bondholders have asked a judge to appoint an examiner to answer several of its key questions.

Since leaving her job, Pattee has been receiving pension checks. But Mercy Iowa City’s decision last week to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and initiate a $20 million sale of its assets to the University of Iowa has her — and many other current and former Mercy employees like her — wondering whether and for how long that will continue.

After considering Mercy Iowa City’s argument that it’s an increasingly “fragile organization” forced into an emergent bankruptcy filing after suffering “significant and negative destruction of value,” a U.S. bankruptcy judge on Wednesday agreed to expedite the timeline of the hospital’s sale – presumably to the University of Iowa – setting a bid deadline of Sept. 19.

The Board of Regents on Tuesday morning unanimously approved a University of Iowa request to buy most of Iowa City-based Mercy Hospital’s assets for $20 million — without asking any questions about the deal’s finances, including how they came to the $20 million figure, where that money will come from, and what will happen with the $63 million Mercy owes on publicly-issued bonds.

UI Physicians may be asked to share more of the financial burden of medical malpractice costs under a potential new agreement

The University of Iowa has signed a letter of intent to acquire “substantially all the operating facilities and key assets of Mercy Iowa City — which has filed for bankruptcy — in hopes of ”preserving the continuity of care for patients and continuing opportunities for physicians and employees.“

In asking the court to dismiss the demand a receiver take control of Mercy – for a second time in the under two weeks since investor Preston Hollow Community Capital and master trustee Computershare Trust petitioned the court July 24 – hospital attorneys Thursday accused the plaintiffs of “insufficient service following deceptive and improper actions.”

After slipping last year to the lowest number of medical care specialties ranked among the Top 50 nationally in at least a decade, the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics again this year ranked in the same two specialties — but improved their ratings in the U.S. News & World Report’s “Best Hospitals” list made public today

Dr. Vincent Reid credits much of who he is today to a small lab in New York City, where he and other minorities were able to thrive through a rare oasis in a scientific world largely not built for them.

Kolofon Health startup growing quickly in Eastern Iowa

The five homes -- including one in Iowa City -- are deemed eligible for inclusion on the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ national list of “special-focus facilities.”