Warren, Ohio Mayor Doug Franklin has written a letter to state Attorney General David Yost asking his office to investigate Dallas-based Steward Health Care regarding Medicaid funding at its former hospitals, Insight Hospital and Medical Center Trumbull and Hillside Rehabilitation Hospital, both in Warren.
Steward, which sought Chapter 11 protection May 6, 2024, sold the two hospitals to Flint, Mich.-based Insight Health System in early November. Insight then paused all inpatient, outpatient and emergency room services at the hospitals March 27 and furloughed 143 employees due to ongoing bankruptcy and financial issues with Steward.
“Steward continues to control and restrict the bank accounts in the bankruptcy where Medicaid, Medicare, and other government funds are deposited,” Mr. Franklin said in the April 25 letter, obtained by Becker’s. “Steward has refused to release these funds to Insight Trumbull which are necessary to fund the operations of the hospital. It is our understanding that it is illegal for Steward to withhold Medicaid payments from the provider providing services (Insight Trumbull).”
Mr. Franklin requested that the attorney general’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit investigate Steward’s bankruptcy activities, specifically alleging the system kept Medicaid payments from Insight to pay vendors and itself with the funding.
“We share a common goal with Insight Trumbull to bring services back, bring employees back to work, and make sure the community has access to quality healthcare,” he said. “This goal can only be achieved with Insight Trumbull having access to funds to operate the hospital.”
Insight did not have a comment for Becker’s at this time. Becker’s has also reached out to the attorney general’s office and Steward for comment and will update this story should more information become available.
