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As treatment costs soar and insurance coverage shrinks, hospitals and patient advocates around the U.S. are rushing to offer more help to patients who have no financial counseling, the Associated Press reported. Cancer centers are hiring experts to help patients navigate the insurance system, while nonprofits are teaching people to think about handling costs when treatments starts instead of waiting for a financial crisis to hit. "We know a lot of very solidly middle class families, they were fine and then ... their financial lives changed," said Jean Sachs, CEO of the nonprofit Living Beyond Breast Cancer. "They're not prepared for the cost of cancer, let alone the care." The Affordable Care Act sets limits for how much people have to spend on care each year. But cancer treatments often extend beyond a year, and those limits don't apply to care sought outside the increasingly narrow network of doctors and hospitals that some insurers offer. Patient costs also can rise because newer cancer treatments are more tolerable, so people can stay on them longer, said Dr. Yousuf Zafar, a Duke Cancer Institute oncologist who studies financial distress.

The Miami Medical Center filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in March, and the 67-bed hospital is slated to be sold in auction in late June, Becker's Hospital Review reported. Leawood, Kan.-based Nueterra, along with its partners, acquired Miami Medical Center in 2014 and invested $70 million in the facility. Children's Health Ventures, the for-profit arm of Miami-based Nicklaus Children's Hospital, invested in Miami Medical Center with hopes of bringing a unique care model to South Florida. However, the Miami Medical Center struggled to stay afloat. The hospital suspended patient services Oct. 30, 2017, and subsequently laid off its 180 employees. It filed for bankruptcy protection March 9, 2018. On March 30, Miami Medical Center filed a motion to approve bidding procedures for the sale of the hospital and to approve certain protections to the stalking-horse purchaser Nicklaus Children's Hospital. The general unsecured creditors' committee and a group of physicians objected to the proposed bidding procedures and the ability of Nicklaus Children's Hospital to credit the amount of its liens on Miami Medical Center. Read more. 

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. 

Thomas DeRosa is making a $4 billion bet that he can build a national, low-cost healthcare network for America’s aging population that will succeed where so many other models have struggled, Reuters reported. His secret: strip out the “for-profit” business model, and leverage the real estate in nursing homes for outpatient care. DeRosa’s strategy starts with buying out the property of the huge bankrupt nursing home chain HCR ManorCare, and teaming up with a non-profit hospital operator, ProMedica, to create a 30-state healthcare system. His own company, real estate investment trust Welltower Inc., is purchasing the ManorCare real estate for $2.7 billion under a deal unveiled April 24 and awaiting approval from a U.S. bankruptcy court. ProMedica is buying ManorCare’s operations for $1.3 billion and combining them with its own surgery centers, clinics and health plan to form a network with $7 billion of annual revenues and 70,000 employees. “This is about a health system moving into a beleaguered sector of healthcare,” DeRosa said. “We’re breaking down the wall of what has traditionally been acute care services and services for the aging.” The aim is to strip out $300 million in costs from the operation, mainly from cheaper rent, once HCR ManorCare emerges from its chapter 11 bankruptcy this year, according to interviews with Welltower and ProMedica executives.

Bay Area Regional Medical Center will close early next week and file for bankruptcy, the hospital said Friday. It was the second announced closure of a local hospital in the last six months, the Houston Chronicle reported. CEO Stephen K. Jones Jr. told employees in an email provided to the Chronicle that the company "was not able to overcome significant hurdles with managed-care companies." An estimated 900 employees will lose their jobs. Patient moveouts began immediately. The 191-bed hospital, which is owned by locally based Medistar Corp. and offers emergency, surgical and a range of other medical services, opened four years ago just a half-mile from the more established Clear Lake Regional Medical Center. Read more. 

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. 

Hospital and Florence (Ariz.) Hospital at Anthem are seeking to force the hospitals into bankruptcy in an attempt to collect $1.96 million they claim the affiliated hospitals owe, according to court documents, Becker's Hospital Review reported. The involuntary chapter 11 petition for Florence Hospital — filed jointly by three employees — seeks $46,650 in wages. An unsecured creditors trust, the hospital's founder and CMO Timothy Johns, MD, and a Phoenix-based law firm filed Gilbert Hospital's involuntary bankruptcy petition, which seeks more than $1.9 million. This is the second time the hospitals have landed in bankruptcy court. The hospitals filed for voluntary chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2014, according to court documents. In court documents filed May 1, creditors claim the hospitals have failed to make lease payments for months and that the facilities are "on the brink of complete shutdown." Read more. 

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. 

Bridgeport Health Care Center Inc., a Connecticut nursing home sued by the federal government over allegations it diverted millions of dollars from the company’s retirement plan to itself and to a Brooklyn-based Jewish nonprofit, has filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Bridgeport, which filed for chapter 11 on Wednesday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Bridgeport, Conn., listed Brooklyn-based health-care company Caretech Supplies Inc., with a $4.2 million claim, as its largest unsecured creditor. The Internal Revenue Service, owed $3.3 million, is listed second, followed by People’s United Bank, located in Bridgeport, owed $2.3 million. All the claims are disputed. The Labor Department sued Bridgeport and its chief financial officer in September 2016, claiming they diverted millions of dollars from the company’s retirement plan improperly to a religious corporation and to themselves.

Independence Blue Cross LLC’s $10.4 million priority claim for unpaid health insurance premiums in North Philadelphia Health System’s bankruptcy could leave nothing for general unsecured creditors if the Philadelphia insurer does not agree to take less, NPHS’s bankruptcy lawyers warned in a filing on Wednesday, Philly.com reported. “NPHS is investigating the extent, validity and priority of this claim,” according to the filing, which laid out the worst-case scenario for creditors. The attorneys are also “engaged in negotiations with Blue Cross to consensually reduce the claim,” it said. In all, the bankruptcy estate is expected to have roughly $1 million to distribute to creditors, NPHS attorney Lawrence G. McMichael said Thursday. Vying for that money are unsecured creditors who say they are owed $29 million. NPHS filed for bankruptcy at the end of 2016. Until this month, Independence was one of four creditors on the committee representing the interests of all unsecured creditors. The firm stepped down from the committee, citing a potential conflict of interest.