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A health care nonprofit that offers an alternative to traditional health insurance has filed for chapter 11 protection and ceased operations, leaving its New Hampshire members without coverage, The New Hampshire Union Leader reported. Sharity Ministries Inc. — formerly known as Trinity Healthshare Inc. — operates as a health care sharing ministry. Members pay premiums and voluntarily agree to share their medical expenses in accordance with their Christian beliefs, according to the company's previous website. In October 2019, the New Hampshire Insurance Department ordered Sharity, along with the Aliera Companies, which had administered and marketed the health coverage, to stop issuing new plans or renewing coverage in the state after receiving dozens of complaints. At the time, about 1,400 New Hampshire residents had signed up for the plans. Similar orders were issued in California, Connecticut, Colorado, Maryland, Missouri and Washington. Such cost-sharing models are less expensive than traditional health insurance but can leave customers vulnerable. Many thought they were signing up for health insurance, only to find their claims were denied because of preexisting conditions or the claims were deemed inappropriate for a "Christian lifestyle," according to the department. Sharity filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy on July 8, and later made the decision to cease operations.

OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma LP said today that creditors voted in favor of its reorganization plan that would provide billions of dollars to the governments that sued the company for its role in the U.S. opioid crisis, Reuters reported. More than 95% of the 120,000-plus votes submitted were in favor of the plan, Purdue said, citing preliminary voting results. Purdue expects to release the final voting results by Aug. 2, but added that it does not expect any material changes. Purdue’s plan aims to resolve some 3,000 lawsuits brought by U.S. communities alleging that Purdue and its wealthy Sackler family owners contributed to the opioid crisis that has claimed the lives of roughly 500,000 people since 1999, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Stamford, Conn.-based company and family members have denied the allegations in the litigation. Earlier in July, Purdue reached an agreement with several states over the litigation. The agreement, supported by longstanding holdouts including Massachusetts and New York, sets the stage for Purdue to gain court approval in coming weeks for its bankruptcy plan, which the company values at more than $10 billion.

The bankrupt Limetree Bay oil refinery in the U.S. Virgin Islands asked to halt pollution lawsuits from proceeding against its current and former private-equity backers, saying that it can’t afford to be drawn into litigation against them, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The lawsuits already are on hold against Limetree Bay Refining LLC after it filed for chapter 11 earlier this month, but are proceeding against its co-defendants, including its controlling owner, EIG Global Energy Partners LLC. On Monday, the refinery asked the judge overseeing its bankruptcy to extend the litigation reprieve for 60 days to EIG and other, prior owners. If granted, the request also would suspend litigation against a nearby oil-storage facility that depends on the refinery for business. EIG, which backs both the refinery and the terminal, declined to comment. Personal-injury and property-damage claims have piled up against the refinery since February, when it restarted after several years offline. Months later, federal authorities shut the refinery after several polluting incidents, including a release of airborne oil droplets that rained down on neighboring areas in May. Bankruptcy followed. The refinery said Monday it is so intertwined with its co-defendants that allowing lawsuits to go forward against them would distract its management from more pressing tasks. Even if the refinery isn’t involved in the proceedings, it would be affected by any liability findings, according to its filing in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Houston.

The Nassau County Industrial Development Agency has agreed to help a retirement community in Port Washington recover from its second bankruptcy in seven years, citing concern about the elderly residents’ welfare, Newsday reported. A divided IDA board voted last week to issue additional bonds and grant more tax breaks to the Amsterdam at Harborside. The nonprofit facility needs the aid to restructure $140 million in existing debt and to pay more than $20 million in entrance-fee refunds owed to 33 families of deceased residents. Officials said the IDA help consists of up to $41 million in taxable bonds, up to $128 million in tax-exempt bonds and up to $1.3 million off the mortgage recording tax. In addition, the Amsterdam’s sponsor, a Manhattan nursing home with the same name, has agreed to pour $18 million into the retirement community at 300 East Overlook on Nassau’s Gold Coast.

The biggest electric power cooperative in Texas revived a fight over whether utilities and consumers should pay for billions of dollars in electricity charges imposed by state regulators during February’s extreme winter storm, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Brazos Electric Power Cooperative Inc., which collapsed into bankruptcy in March, filed court papers on Sunday challenging the right of the state’s grid operator to collect roughly $1.9 billion for electricity supplied during winter storm Uri. Brazos said the Electric Reliability Council of Texas violated its own rules on how to respond to extreme situations, such as when demand far exceeds available supply of electricity. The cooperative had said it filed for bankruptcy because it was unable to meet demands from Ercot, which raised electricity rates to the peak price of $9,000 per megawatt hour during the storm, compared with an average of roughly $22 per megawatt hour last year. A law passed last month empowers and mandates utilities to cover the costs of winter storm Uri by selling securitized debt backed by user surcharges. The legislation “didn’t provide the kind of relief Brazos was looking for, the cooperative’s lawyer Louis Strubeck said at a court hearing yesterday. While Brazos plans to explore securitization financing of some of its bills, it also plans to challenge part of the charges, he said.

Personal residential insurer Gulfstream Property and Casualty Insurance Co. has agreed to liquidate according to a July 22 order signed by the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation, the Insurance Journal reported. The Florida Department of Financial Services must agree to receivership before the liquidation process can formally begin. Once the DFS signs off, Gulfstream customers will have 30 days to find new coverage. n the OIR’s Consent To Order Of Receivership, Commissioner David Altmaier wrote that the office has determined that “one or more grounds exist for the initiation of delinquency proceedings,” which include Gulfstream’s admission of insolvency. The liquidation process caps off a tumultuous stretch for the Sarasota-based insurer. Gulfstream was placed under administrative supervision in late June after it failed to maintain the minimum surplus necessary to pay claims. Weeks earlier, Demotech Inc. withdrew its “A” designation, citing the company’s shaky finances. Gulfstream suffered significant losses in 2020. The company reported a decrease in surplus of more than $5.2 million as of Dec. 31, 2020 compared with the same date in 2019 including a net loss of $22.6 million and a net underwriting loss of $34.9 million.

Owners of the Aloft Miami Brickell hotel filed for bankruptcy due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the South Florida Business Journal reported. Mary Brickell Village Hotel LLC, a subsidiary of Miami-based real estate developer and hotelier HES Group, filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Wednesday in the Southern District of Florida. The declaration comes after DF VII Reit Holdings LLC, an affiliate of New York-based Torchlight Investors, filed a foreclosure complaint agains the company and its guarantors over missed mortgage payments starting in April 2020, according to court documents. Court documents show the hotel's loan was made for $17 million in 2014 and sold on the commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) market. According to CMBS data from Bloomberg, Torchlight Loan Services was appointed special servicer 60 days after the loan went into default.

The Justice Department has objected to a $3.8 million legal bill submitted by a Los Angeles law firm overseeing the liquidation of the bankrupt Easterday ranches and farms in the Columbia Basin, the Capital Press reported. The bill, with others to follow, covers work that lawyers with Pachulski, Stang, Ziehl and Jones did between Feb. 1 and May 31. The rates far exceed what local lawyers involved in the case are seeking and are substantially higher than fees attorneys recently collected in a more complicated bankruptcy case in Eastern Washington, according to Assistant U.S. Trustee Gary Dyer, the government watchdog in the bankruptcy proceeding. The firm vaguely described its services, had too many nonparticipating lawyers attend court hearings and over-billed by miscalculating hours, Dyer claimed. He asked Bankruptcy Judge Whitman Holt to reduce the fees and perhaps withhold them until the L.A. firm provides fuller descriptions of its work.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren is bolstering efforts by Democratic lawmakers to stop the owners of OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma LP from using the company’s bankruptcy to shield themselves from lawsuits blaming them for the opioid crisis, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The Massachusetts Democrat is sponsoring a Senate bill set to be introduced next week that calls for prohibiting owners of bankrupt businesses or other individuals who haven’t filed personal bankruptcy from getting so-called nonconsensual third-party releases protecting them from litigation by government entities and private citizens. A companion bill in the House is also slated to be introduced next week. The type of legal protection the Sacklers seek has traditionally been available only to those filing for bankruptcy, Warren said. “If the Sacklers want to stop those lawsuits, they can file for bankruptcy just like normal people do when they’re overwhelmed by debts,” Warren said. “There is not one set of laws for everybody in this country and a special exception for rich people. The Sacklers are trying to get something special for themselves and I want to cut them off at the pass.” The Sacklers are offering to pay about $4.5 billion in exchange for protection from private lawsuits, as well as enforcement actions from states that oppose Purdue’s chapter 11 plan. The bankruptcy plan has the support of most creditor groups and more than 30 states but is opposed by a handful of other states, the District of Columbia and the Justice Department’s bankruptcy watchdog. Members of the Sackler family have denied wrongdoing and have said their settlement is an important step to help those suffering from opioid addiction. Lawyers for the Sacklers have said in court papers that family members who served on Purdue’s board acted “lawfully and ethically” and have been unfairly accused of contributing to the opioid crisis.

Petroleum barge company Bouchard Transportation has postponed a bankruptcy court hearing on the sale of its assets as creditors lodged complaints about a recent auction, Reuters reported. A hearing on the sale of the company’s assets was scheduled to occur on Friday before U.S. Bankruptcy Judge David Jones in Houston but was bumped back to Aug. 2. A July 19 auction had resulted in a winning bid for 29 vessels from JMB Capital Partners for $115.3 million, according to court papers, but creditors say there were issues with the auction and that a better option may be out there. Bouchard filed for bankruptcy in September with $230 million in debt as the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated existing financial problems at the company that occurred after a barge explosion in 2017. The unsecured creditors’ committee said in an objection that the results of the auction do not appear to bode well for creditors. The committee said when the bankruptcy was filed, Bouchard believed it could provide full recoveries to unsecured creditors. “Unfortunately, after running an extended sale process and otherwise trying to turn the business around, the Debtors’ hope will be unrealized,” the committee said. The committee also took issue with Bouchard’s selection of a lead bid and its related fees less than a day before the auction occurred. The lead bid — which was not ultimately the winning bid, according to court papers — came from Hartree Partners. The offer was $110 million and included a 3% fee and $1.5 million in expense reimbursements if Hartree was outbid at the auction, which it ultimately was, the committee said.