In case you missed it, the Chicago Tribune came out with a detailed investigative report this weekend regarding the financial malfeasance underlying the 2025 closure of Weiss Hospital and the 2026 closure of West Suburban Medical Center in Oak Park.
According to the article, the 2022 purchase of the hospitals from Pipeline Health was approved by the State of Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board without sufficient investigation. While the leader of the new healthcare consortium (Dr. Manoj Prasad and investor Reddy Rathnaker Patlola) presented themselves to local and state leaders as experienced in healthcare, including healthcare turnarounds, they had little actual experience.
Under the arrangement, Patlola’s firm bought the properties and leased them to Prasad’s operating firm, Resilience Healthcare. The two investors (Prasad and Patlola) are currently in litigation over the closures and other financial matters, and the article notes that Prasad admitted in a recent deposition that the partners did not perform serious due diligence or review reliable financials until after seeking approval from the State.
The article notes that since the State approved the deal in 2022, the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services (HFS) has handed out millions in loans and grants, including newer loans in 2025 despite Resilience missing 12 straight repayments, failing to repay any principal, and owing nearly $60 million in delinquent taxes and penalties.
The Tribune reporters also note that although state rules require recipients to be placed on a "Stop Payment List" if they fail to submit annual third-party audits, the Illinois Department of Public Health continued funding the hospitals for two fiscal years before halting payments in November 2025.
There's much more in the article about financial and oversight issues, including allegations of potential misappropriated funds by Prasad. Prasad blames failed attempts to to switch to a new electronic medical record (EMR) system for causing funding deficits, and the lack of a plan to ensure proper billing has hamstrung efforts to reopen the hospitals.
With respect to the hospitals themselves, the reporters show what we already knew: that the hospitals were unclean and lacked proper ventilation and supplies.
Overall, a great piece of investigative reporting and all credit is due to the reporters at the Tribune.
What is the use of our regulatory agencies? They have one job! Make sure that the organizations they regulate are following the rules. How many millions would have been saved if someone there simply did their job? Taxpayers must demand more accountability. Journalists need to follow up on this story.
ReplyDeleteregulatory agencies mean nothing to republicans (see doge)
DeleteGood riddance. Nearby St Joes, Il Masonic and even Thorek provide better quality care
ReplyDeleteNow the Medicare rule that requires transport to the nearest hospital won't force us neighbors into that shit hole.
Except both St. Joes and Masonic are not required to except Medicaid. Both hospitals have a medicaid cap. In this area your closest ER is probavly Swedish. But Swrdish, St Joes and Ill Mis. Will probably transfer ypu to Cook County hospital. If you need to be admitted. Weiss was the ony northern medicaid hospital...which why tnis fiasco is even more evil.
DeleteSwedish, Saint Joseph, and Illinois Masonic all treat Medicaid patients; Swedish even operates programs expressly serving people with Medicaid or no insurance. Whether a particular physician or nonemergency service accepts someone’s Medicaid managed-care plan is a separate network issue—not evidence that the hospitals impose a blanket “Medicaid cap.”
DeleteFederal law requires hospital emergency departments to examine and stabilize patients regardless of insurance, and they cannot transfer a patient to Cook County simply because the patient has Medicaid. Transfers must be medically appropriate or necessary because the hospital lacks the required capability or capacity.