Reports emerged Thursday morning that ownership of Oak Park’s troubled West Suburban Medical Center owes nearly $70 million to the state of Illinois.
The Chicago Tribune reported that Resilience Healthcare — the for-profit management company that’s operated West Sub and the recently-closed Weiss Memorial Hospital since 2022 — owes $69 million in unpaid monthly hospital assessment payments and late penalties to the state. Department of Healthcare and Family Services spokesperson Melissa Kula reportedly told the newspaper that Weiss owes the state $27.7 and that West Sub owes the state $41.6 million.
The newspaper also reportedly obtained 18 letters sent from DHFS to Resilience related to the money owed.
The report follows months of dysfunction at the safety-net hospitals which have spilled out into the public eye.
Since July, Wednesday Journal has covered problems at West Sub including accounts of unsafe high temperatures inside the hospital building and the abrupt dismissal of the hospital’s entire Family Birthplace nursing staff.
A recent Wednesday Journal FOIA request also revealed that the hospital had failed more than two dozen Oak Park elevator inspections since the start of 2023 and had failed an Oak Park fire safety inspection in August.
On Aug. 8, Resilience Healthcare shuttered Weiss Memorial in Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood — citing financial woes. Weiss had been terminated from the federal Medicaid and Medicare systems following safety issues uncovered by state investigators at the hospital.
At a press conference tied to that announcement, Resilience Healthcare CEO Manoj Prasad broke a media silence and acknowledged that West Sub is in bad enough financial straits that leaders make spending decisions based on how much cash arrives on a given day.
Resilience is reportedly appealing the Weiss Medicaid and Medicare decision, a process that Prasad said could take up to a year.
At that press conference, Prasad said the organization assumed $81 million in debt when it took control of the hospitals.
