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Bind Therapeutics Inc., a publicly traded biotechnology company working on developing cancer treatments, filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Sunday after defaulting on its debt, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Bind Therapeutics, whose backers include Koch Industries Inc.’s David Koch and Polaris Partners, is hoping to take advantage of the breathing room of chapter 11 to restructure its business, which may include raising new capital, finding a new partner or selling some or all of its technology. In court papers, President and Chief Executive Andrew Hirsch added that the company hopes to maintain a “business-as-usual atmosphere.” The filing comes days after the Cambridge, Mass., company received a notice of default from lender Hercules Technology III LP, which demanded immediate payment of the $14.5 million the lender says it is owed under the loan.

The bankruptcy of TransCare, a private company that provided ambulance coverage to large parts of the Bronx and some areas in Manhattan, has the city’s Emergency Medical Service scrambling to shift ambulances and crews from across the five boroughs, the New York Times reported today. In all, TransCare used to provide 81 ambulance tours a day in the city; it was teetering for months, so officials knew they needed a contingency plan. For now, the city has patched the problem, though the medics are starting to become frayed from the extra hours or the trips to boroughs outside their regular assignments, and warm weather, the busiest time of the year for medical emergencies, is coming up.

Atherotech Inc. has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection after ceasing operations last month, the Birmingham (Ala.) Business Journal reported today. The company listed less than $50,000 in assets and between $50,000 and $100 million in liabilities in its bankruptcy filing. The company's main asset — its VAP cholesterol test — is licensed out of the University of Alabama at Birmingham and can't be sold. A notice went out to Atherotech's 1,838 total creditors on Monday. Some of the largest creditors included in the filing are Regions Financial Corp., Madison Capital Funding LLC, Southern States Bank, and First American Commercial Bancorp. Lee Benton, of Benton & Centeno LLP, is the bankruptcy attorney.

Several investment funds with ties to Texas billionaire Tim Headington are trying to push an unfinished Atlanta cancer treatment center into bankruptcy protection, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Lawyers for Zeitgeist Capital LLC and two other funds filed an involuntary bankruptcy petition on Friday for the partially built Emory Proton Therapy Center, stating in court documents that the funds are owed more than $8.2 million. The filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del., sets a 20-day timeline for Emory Proton Therapy Center officials to respond to the involuntary case. They didn’t respond to requests for comment Monday. The 107,000-square-foot center, which broke ground in 2013, is scheduled to open in late 2017 and would be the third center developed by California-based Advanced Particle Therapy LLC to begin treating cancer patients. Advanced Particle Therapy officials have raised more than $750 million for their proposal to build four cancer treatment centers across the country but still need at least $110 million, court papers said.

Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. said that it is under investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in a previously undisclosed probe, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. The drugmaker said that it received a subpoena from the SEC in the fourth quarter and would have disclosed it in due course in its 10-K filing, which has been delayed. It didn’t provide further details on the probe. The SEC probe is separate from an existing investigation into a company purchased by Valeant last year, Salix Pharmaceuticals Ltd., which was previously disclosed. The stock fell 18 percent to $65.80 at the close in New York. Valeant has lost almost three-quarters of its value since August as scrutiny on its drug price increases, distribution system and accounting intensified.

The Medical Debt Relief Act, designed to remove settled and paid medical debts from consumer credit reports, was introduced in the Senate and House late last week, CollectionsCreditRisk.com reported yesterday. The legislation proposes to create permanent 180-day waiting period rules before medical debts are documented with credit bureaus. The timeframe would allow insurance payments to be applied. The credit bureaus also would remove previously reported medical collections that have been or are being paid by insurance from consumers’ credit reports. The newly introduced legislation would permanently establish the National Consumer Assistance Plan created last year as a result of a settlement between credit bureaus Equifax, Experian and TransUnion and several state attorneys general. An estimated 20 percent of consumers with credit reports had one or more medical collection item on their record, according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. An estimated 43 million consumers have overdue medical debt recorded on their credit reports and 15 million have credit reports listing only medical debt, according to the CFPB’s 2014 data. 

Forest Park Medical Center LLC, the operator of luxury surgical hospitals in Texas, filed for chapter 11 protection Sunday, months after several of its hospitals entered bankruptcy court, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. Dallas-based Forest Park has eight affiliated bankruptcy filings, including its locations in Frisco, Fort Worth and Southlake, court papers show. The other affiliated filings are related to real estate agencies throughout Texas. The operator listed between $10 million and $50 million in both assets and liabilities in court papers. Read more. (Subscription required.) 

For more on hospital and health care insolvencies, be sure to pick up a copy of the ABI Health Care Insolvency Manual, Third Edition from the ABI Bookstore.