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Since at least 2009, McKinsey & Co. has been a consultant to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, the federal agency that oversees healthcare for millions of retired military service members. During part of that time, the consulting giant also advised some of the world’s biggest opioid producers to target the agency for sales of their products, according to newly released documents, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The firm advised opioid companies including Purdue Pharma LP and Endo International PLC on how to increase sales to the VA through both new and existing channels, the documents show. Meanwhile, McKinsey earned at least $117 million consulting for the VA, primarily on matters related to healthcare services for veterans, according to government records. Purdue and Endo both filed for bankruptcy in recent years to shield themselves from mass lawsuits alleging they fueled the opioid crisis, while McKinsey’s work for those companies and others subjected it to litigation of its own. The firm in 2021 reached a $642 million settlement of opioid-related lawsuits from all 50 state attorneys general, in which it didn’t admit wrongdoing. It agreed in the settlement to make public certain documents concerning its past work for opioid companies and began releasing records last year. The documents establish that McKinsey identified the VA as an important sales target for its corporate clients in the opioid industry, at a time that the firm also did consulting work for the agency.

An anticipated chapter 11 petition for Madera (Calif.) Community Hospital was filed in federal bankruptcy court on Friday, the The Business Journal reported. Saint Agnes Medical Center is the largest secured creditor, owed $15.4 million. New England Sheet Metal and one of its subcontractors together hold mechanic’s liens of about $1.1 million. About $2 million is owed in unpaid, accumulated time off for employees. All unsecured creditors are owed a total of about $9.1 million. Madera Community Hospital also filed a list of its 20 largest, unsecured creditors. The largest unsecured creditor is Citizens Business Bank, owed $1.1 million, followed by the State of California Emergency Medical Services Authority owed $776,412 and Arya Medical Group in Fresno owed $300,723. Assets include $5 million in cash, the hospital campus with an estimated value of $16 million to $60 million and incoming provider fees of $24 million. Along with the bankruptcy petition, Madera Community Bank also filed emergency motions to pay certain pre-petition wages, salaries, benefits and other compensation. According to the filing, the hospital has laid off more than 700 employees since Dec. 26, and currently has 31 full-time employees and four per diem employees managing the shuttered facility in administration and maintenance positions.

A plan for the owner of a senior living community in Plano, Texas, to emerge from bankruptcy faces a creditor vote this month, a confirmation hearing in April, and opposition from the trustee for nearly $66.8 million of defaulted revenue bonds, The Bond Buyer reported. BSPV-Plano, LLC, a Texas limited liability company, filed the chapter 11 case in the U.S. Eastern District of Texas Bankruptcy Court in March 2022 after Bridgemoor at Plano, its 318-unit rental project, was beset with problems. Bond trustee The Huntington National Bank said that Bankruptcy Judge Brenda Rhoades approved the company's disclosure statement Feb. 24 despite its opposition and that it expects to file an objection to the plan's confirmation on or before March 29, according to a notice to bondholders posted Monday on the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board's EMMA website. A court hearing on the plan's confirmation is scheduled for April 13 and 14.

Over the past month in a southeast Georgia courtroom, three generations of families testified about how their lives had been savaged by addiction to prescription opioids, the New York Times reported. It was the first lawsuit to come to trial brought by individual victims of the opioid epidemic against pharmaceutical companies. On Wednesday afternoon, the victims lost. After deliberating barely a day and a half, the jury found that the companies — two of the country’s largest medical distributors, McKesson and Cardinal Health, and a third regional one — were not liable. The plaintiffs — 21 relatives from six families — had filed suit under a rarely used state law that permits relatives of people addicted to drugs to sue drug dealers. The outcome of the case underscores a startling reality. The pharmaceutical industry has committed more than $50 billion so far to settle lawsuits over its role in the opioid epidemic, but the families of people who died or who still struggle with addiction have gotten almost none of it. The money pledged by manufacturers (like Purdue Pharma and Johnson & Johnson), distributors (AmerisourceBergen as well as McKesson and Cardinal) and national pharmacy chains (like CVS and Walgreens) is earmarked for prevention and treatment programs in the states, municipalities and tribes that filed thousands of opioid-related cases. Those cases were propped up to a large degree by the suffering and statistics of families hit by the opioid crisis.

Lucira Health Inc., a publicly traded maker of at-home COVID-19 tests, filed for chapter 11 protection on Wednesday, Bloomberg News reported. California-based Lucira listed assets of about $146 million and liabilities of about $85 million in its bankruptcy petition. The company will keep operating during bankruptcy as it seeks to sell itself, according to a statement. Lucira sells an at-home COVID test that provides “lab-quality results” in 30 minutes, according to its website. A single test is listed for $35 on the site. Declining COVID-19 restrictions crimped demand for the tests, squeezing Lucira, Chief Executive Officer Erik Engelson said in the statement. Slower-than-expected regulatory approval for a flu test kit also hurt the company, he said. Venture capital firm Eclipse Ventures holds about a 10% stake in Lucira, making it the company’s biggest shareholder, court papers show.

Akorn Pharmaceuticals has announced they are filing chapter 7 bankruptcy and laying off hundreds in Decatur, Ill., WCIA.com reported. In a company-wide video call, Akorn President Douglas Boothe announced to employees that Wednesday would be the last day they can visit the office to pack up their belongings. Mayor of Decatur Julie Moore Wolfe estimates about 450 workers were laid off by Akorn. Boothe said the company had been looking for potential buyers since last year. “The company’s owners have just informed us they will not provide any additional financing required to run the business,” Boothe said. “Their decision leaves us, the board and the ownership and the management team, with no other alternatives to conclude the sales process and initiate bankruptcy proceedings.” The pharmaceuticals company will terminate all benefits from employees at the end of the month. Boothe also said they will be unable to pay severance or provide COBRA health insurance coverage to their former employees. Akorn previously filed for chapter 11 protection in 2020. Illinois Rep. Sue Scherer (D-Decatur) believes the company broke state law. Illinois’ WARN Act requires companies of more than 75 employees to give state and local officials 60 days’ notice before a mass layoff if they are laying off more than a third of the location’s workforce, or 250 workers. If the company is found violating the WARN Act, Akorn is liable to give backpay and benefits to their workers for every day they are in violation.

The Biden administration on Monday proposed requiring nursing homes to disclose more information about their ownership and management to provide clarity about investments by private-equity companies or real-estate investment trusts, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The proposal also would require nursing homes that receive Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement to share more information about individuals or organizations that provide administrative services or clinical consulting to nursing homes. Currently, families often don’t know what companies may provide care in nursing homes. The information would be made public, administration officials said. They said the data is important because there are mounting concerns about the quality of care of nursing facilities that are owned by private-equity companies and other types of investment firms — an ownership relationship that has grown since 2011. President Biden in his 2022 State of the Union address criticized private-equity ownership of nursing homes, saying the arrangements drive down quality and raise costs. Residents in nursing homes that are acquired by private equity companies were about 11% more likely to have an emergency department visit that could have been prevented compared with residents in for-profit nursing homes that aren’t associated with private equity, according to a Nov. 19, 2021, study cited by the administration and published in JAMA Health Forum.