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Biopharmaceutical company Sorrento Therapeutics Inc. has filed for bankruptcy weeks after being hit with judgments totaling more than $173 million in a licensing dispute with affiliates of billionaire health entrepreneur Patrick Soon-Shiong’s NantWorks LLC, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Sorrento filed for chapter 11 on Monday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Houston, an action that immediately pauses NantWorks affiliates’ attempt to collect the judgments awarded over alleged breaches by Sorrento of an exclusive licensing agreement between the companies related to the development of anticancer immunotherapies. An arbitrator awarded NantCell Inc. and Immunotherapy NANTibody LLC the judgments in December, a decision confirmed last week by a Los Angeles Superior Court judge. NantCell was awarded more than $156.8 million and NANTIbody was awarded more than $16.6 million, according to U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and bankruptcy filings. The judgments are part of a broader legal dispute between Sorrento, NantWorks affiliates and Dr. Soon-Shiong. In December, Sorrento was awarded $125 million in a separate arbitration with NantPharma LLC related to the development of the cancer drug Cynviloq. Sorrento said that before filing for bankruptcy that it faced significant disruption to its business because the NantWorks affiliates planned to immediately take steps to levy the company’s assets to satisfy the judgments it was awarded in the licensing dispute. Sorrento said in December that it believed the arbitration was wrongly decided and would explore its options for vacating the judgments.

Bipartisan legislation introduced on Feb. 6 by Rep. Sam Graves (R-Mo.) aims to rescue rural American hospitals facing bankruptcy, the Rippon Advance reported. “For many communities and families, this is a life or death situation,” said Rep. Graves on Wednesday. “I’m proud to reintroduce this bipartisan solution that will make common-sense reforms to put our rural hospitals back on solid ground and rescue many from the brink.” The "Save America’s Rural Hospitals Act," H.R. 833, which Rep. Graves sponsored alongside lead original cosponsor Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) would amend the Social Security Act to authorize enhanced payments to rural healthcare providers under the Medicare and Medicaid programs, according to the text of the bill. If enacted, H.R. 833 would eliminate Medicare sequestration for rural hospitals and make Medicare telehealth service enhancements permanent for federally qualified health centers and rural health clinics, according to a bill summary provided by Rep. Graves’ office. The bill also would permanently extend increased Medicare payments for rural ground ambulance services that are set to expire on Dec. 31, 2024, and expand access to certified registered nurse anesthetists’ services, the summary says.

Invacare Corp., a maker and distributor of wheelchairs, hospital beds and other medical equipment, filed for bankruptcy with a deal in hand with its lenders and bondholders to slash $240 million in debt and emerge from chapter 11 within four months, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The company put itself and two of its U.S. subsidiaries under chapter 11 protection on Tuesday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Houston. The chapter 11 filing doesn’t include its businesses outside the U.S., which generate a majority of the company’s sales, according to a court filing by Chief Financial Officer Kathleen Leneghan. Ahead of the filing, the company reached an agreement with its lender Highbridge Capital Management LLC and a group of bondholders owning two-thirds of its unsecured notes to slash debt from $358 million to roughly $118 million, according to Ms. Leneghan’s court filing. Highbridge is also providing a $70 million debtor-in-possession loan to fund the company’s stay in chapter 11.

Hospitals will likely see bad debt soar when a pandemic-era rule expires allowing states to kick patients off Medicaid April 1, according to a January report from Moody’s Investors Service, Bloomberg News reported. The rule had encouraged states to keep beneficiaries continuously enrolled — regardless of eligibility — in order to receive higher reimbursements. Once states start trimming their rolls, however, hospital revenue is expected to decline as health-care providers will need to assume costs from an expected wave of uninsured patients. A loss of millions of insured patients — even at the lower rates Medicaid pays — comes at an already-grim period for the medical field, which is coping with the wind down of billions in federal pandemic relief funding and significantly higher labor costs and shortages. Those shortfalls have hampered hospitals’ ability to return to prepandemic conditions, Moody’s said. “Labor shortages, which resulted in weak volume trends in 2022 because hospitals were unable to fully staff beds or maintain services, will continue to contribute to an uneven volume recovery,” Moody’s analysts wrote. “The degree to which hospitals can make progress toward a return to prepandemic volumes will affect credit quality in 2023.” Before the pandemic, about two-thirds of people who lost Medicaid had a period of uninsurance, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. It estimates that between 5.3 and 14.2 million people could lose Medicaid coverage in the following 12 months, while a report from the Department of Health and Human Services last year predicted up to 15 million Americans could be removed, or about 17% of those enrolled in Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program.

El Segundo, Calif.-based hospital operator Pipeline Health System, which filed for chapter 11 protection on Oct. 2, has announced that its reorganization plan was confirmed by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas, the Los Angeles Business Journal reported. The slimmed-down company expects to emerge from bankruptcy sometime next month. During its time in chapter 11, Pipeline Health sold two Chicago-area hospitals that it had long been trying to offload. The company also submitted a restructuring plan that called for the elimination of $275 million in funded debt obligations and more than $55 million in unsecured liabilities. The bankruptcy exit, which was announced on Jan. 13, also involves some key personnel changes, including the chief executive post. Longtime Chief Executive Andrei Soran will step down on the day the company officially exits bankruptcy. Succeeding him in that post will be the current chief financial officer, Robert Allen, who has 25 years of experience as a local hospital executive.

Top Home Care Agency LLC has filed for voluntary chapter 11 bankruptcy, the Pittsburgh Business Times reported. The Pittsburgh-based home health care agency made the filing Tuesday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania, with liabilities between $500,000 and $1 million and assets under $50,000. The biggest unclaimed creditor is the Internal Revenue Service, with tax liens of $500,000 reported in the filing. Other tax liens in the filing include $190,000 from the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry and $66,000 from the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue. Other unsecured creditors in the filing include Biz 2 Credit for $70,000 and $24,050 in disputed back rent. A hearing on the bankruptcy case in front of Judge Carlota M. Bohm has been scheduled for Thursday.