Private equity firm buys Missouri hospital and fires ALL employees

[Demovictory9]

https://khn.org/news/article/noble-health-platinum-health-private-equity-hospital-workers-fired/

Buy and Bust: After Platinum Health Took Control of Noble Sites, All Hospital Workers Were Fired


The news, under Noble Health letterhead, arrived at 5:05 p.m. on a Friday, with the subject line: “Urgent Notice.” Audrain Community Hospital, Paul Huemann’s workplace of 32 years, was letting workers go.

Word travels fast in a small town. Huemann’s wife, Kym, first heard the bad news in the car when a friend who’d gotten the letter, too, texted.

“Your termination was not foreseeable,” said the letter, dated Sept. 8 and signed Platinum Health Systems, adding that the firing was permanent “with no recourse” and that the “medical facility will be shuttered.”

“I don’t know what my next steps are,” said 52-year-old Huemann, who supervised the laboratory at the Audrain hospital.

The future for the Huemanns, hundreds of other workers, and thousands of patients in two small Missouri towns began to unravel long before that afternoon. The drama playing out in Paul Huemann’s hometown is familiar to many who live in rural America: Communities are so desperate to keep their hospital open that they’re willing to gamble on any buyer, including those backed by private equity.

Sometimes they lose.

[krkaufman]

1. Earlier struggles

https://www.komu.com/news/midmissourinews/we-need-it-in-our-community-mexico-ready-for-audrain-community-hospital-to-reopen/article_e34ed93c-c27f-11ec-80e2-4797e35d8ea9.html

[bucolic_frolic]

2. This will be like private equity food and shoes - no money left for the product

Panyarrruh!

[rubbersole]

3. A recent example of that business practice...

would be - the Russian army.

[bucolic_frolic]

4. are they privately owned now? /nt

[whistler162]

5. More Grand Supreme Field Marshaly owned

Grand Supreme Field Marshal Vlad de Putin

[Irish_Dem]

6. Russian generals seem to own their military, the budget belongs to them.

[bucolic_frolic]

7. Wonder how it stands in their legal system, just graft I suppose

[Irish_Dem]

8. Putin and the oligarchs do it all the time. Corruption seems to be accepted.

[rubbersole]

10. Putin's cronies are worse than private owners. Certain yacht owning Russian "defense suppliers"...

were shown to have sold the troops inferior equipment that didn't hold up in battle. The tires on personnel carriers failed during the initial invasion. Not only embarrassing but fatal to many Russian soldiers. That was an example of top brass getting the bulk of the money before seeing that an actual working product had been delivered.
Closing rural hospitals is all about corporate profit margins. It is one of the most glaring examples of unfettered capitalism truly disregarding the needs of the "regular Americans". That list is virtually endless...

[twodogsbarking]

9. Make health care care again.

[irisblue]

11. How will that firm keep all the federal and professional regulations?

Is this a land grab?

[iluvtennis]

12. Think it is disgusting to do this to the employees and patients. And,

what happened to the patients- were they relocated? And how far away is that hospital so family and friends can see patients. This is so sad.

[Celerity]

13. Wow, just read the whole article, it is far worse than I thought. Fraudsters run riot.

[HAB911]

14. World's best healthcare system in action!