Attorneys for both sides in two lawsuits involving the shuttered West Suburban Medical Center agreed at a court hearing Thursday morning that significant progress has been made toward working out a settlement.
Although it may be more accurate to say, “three sides,” and it’s still not clear what that third side has or has not agreed to.
In court Thursday morning, Attorney Scott Kaplan, who represents Rathnaker Reddy Patlola’s Ramco real estate company, and Martin Tasch, the attorney for Manoj Prasad, CEO of Resilience Healthcare, both appeared via Zoom.
“I believe we’ve made progress,” Kaplan told the judge. “We’re trying to work out the last remaining kinks. We are making headway.” Kaplan suggested the outstanding electrical bills from Commonwealth Edison for both West Sub and the also shuttered Weiss Memorial are an “urgent issue.”
The utility had put the two Resilience owned hospitals on notice that their electric service will be turned off if payment for overdue bills is not received by July 8.
“I agree with all of what counsel said,” Tasch said. Tasch then informed the court that Manoj Prasad, majority Resilience owner and West Sub CEO, may have different interests to protect legally.
Early on in the settlement process, Tasch told Judge Patrick Stanton, he learned that “Resilience and Dr. Prasad do not have identical interests. Dr. Prasad has his own counsel.”
Tasch added that “Counsel for Dr. Prasad needs to participate (in any settlement talks) because his interests are different than the corporate entities (he owns).”
Kaplan said the judge that the parties would have “some bullet points we’ll bring to you if we can’t resolve them.” One of those, he said, was the urgent overdue electric bills.
“Given the urgent nature of these notices, I’d suggest we come back next week,” he told Stanton.
“Maybe we’d have an update next Wednesday or Tuesday,” Tasch suggested. Kaplan replied, “I’d suggest Tuesday.”
Stanton set a settlement conference for 10:30 on June 30, in his chambers. He made it clear he wanted Prasad involved in the discussions Tuesday.
“Run that by Dr. Prasad’s counsel,” he told Tasch and Kaplan. “I would like him here with his counsel. He’s not in New Jersey. He’s in the western suburbs.”
In other developments, ABC7 News is reporting that one of the points in the settlement agreement being negotiated “could include Prasad’s exit from the beleaguered hospital.”
ABC7 Chicago quotes Dr. Vishnu Chundi, a former West Suburban physician and chair of the Chicago Medical Society’s task force to restore care at West Suburban Medical Center.
“You’ve got physicians who have no trust in this ownership or the owner of the land anymore,” Chundi told the station.