A coalition of Philadelphia-area health systems led by Thomas Jefferson University Hospital Inc. won bankruptcy court approval yesterday to buy the residency program of Hahnemann University Hospital, effectively killing hopes of reviving the historic institution, which served the city’s poor, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Jefferson and its allies are purchasing the residency program for $55 million over the protests of companies that offered to save the hospital and an objection from the government. Bankruptcy Judge Kevin Gross rebuffed last-ditch attempts to save Hahnemann at a hearing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del. The judge turned aside challenges from bidders that offered to pay more — and to keep Hahnemann in operation — after Hahnemann’s lawyers said that the offers from outsiders were risky. More than 150 years old, Hahnemann filed for bankruptcy less than two years after being acquired by investors led by Joel Freedman, a former California investment banker. Blaming insufficient federal reimbursement rates, the teaching hospital began closing down abruptly, unsettling the education plans of hundreds of new doctors who were beginning their residencies there.
