The Whitney Hospital Authority board of directors voted to shutter the hospital last week, laying off the remaining 30 employees who were still there. Lake Whitney Medical Center almost closed its doors last July after its owner, Tariq Mahmood, MD, underwent federal investigations for allegedly defrauding Medicare and Medicaid. Dr. Mahmood owned Lake Whitney Medical Center and several other rural hospitals throughout Texas.
However, a few organizations entered the fray with possible plans to save the hospital, including Deerfield Beach, Fla.-based Frontier Hospitals, which stepped in at the beginning of August with a 30-day lease-purchase agreement.
However, Frontier terminated its agreement soon thereafter, and other takeover deals fell through after groups realized the grim financial picture of Lake Whitney Medical Center.
“It is a sad day for this hospital,” WHA President Jim Cato told The Lakelander. “All of us have just taken for granted that we’ll always have a hospital and an ER here.”
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