Hospital Cites Late Medicare Payments
St. Anthony’s Hospital, a 39-bed hospital in northeast Houston, closed on August 19, 2014, a month after filing for bankruptcy.
Hospital officials said that the hospital was shuttered after failing to be sold after filing for bankruptcy. Bankruptcy court records show that the facility’s approximately $1.5 million in asset has been overshadowed by more than $27 million in debt to creditors like First National Bank of Edinburg, the Internal Revenue Service, Opes Investments, and the Texas Workforce Commission.
St. Anthony’s Hospital is owned by an investment group known as Little York Hospital of Houston, also known as LTMH Houston. Hospital officials said that they could not meet payroll for its 44 full-time and 30 part-time employees because of late reimbursements from new Medicare payment contractor.
CEO Blames Novitas Solutions
In January, 2014, St. Anthony’s Hospital CEO Jason Leday issued a statement saying that Novitas Solutions was too slow to reimburse the hospital for Medicare claims. Novitas said it follows federal guidelines, and is not at fault.
At that time, Leday told Houston’s ABC-TV affiliate Channel 13 that he is owed nearly $3 million in payments from Medicare and hadn’t collected a paycheck in nearly a year. He said he has given money from his personal bank account to his employees so that they could buy gas and groceries.
“I’m very remorseful and disappointed that we can’t provide paychecks for those employees. It breaks my heart, and it’s been hard for everybody,” Leday said.
“This is a national issue that affects us locally. We are adapting to the new ways of doing business that have been created. We think we can be successful in 2013 and can take care of all of our employees through the transition.”
The hospital has had many names and owners over the years including Renaissance Hospital, its most recent name prior to St. Anthony’s. The Little York Hospital of Houston investment group has also owned hospitals in Grand Prairie and Groves, Texas that also had financial difficulties.