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Documents directly contradict statements made by Obama pal Whitaker about 2019 hospital closure

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* Crain’s Chicago Business on February 15, 2019…

Just two weeks after acquiring three former Tenet Healthcare hospitals, Pipeline Health has plans to shutter one of them.

The impending closure of Westlake Hospital was announced late Feb. 15 by the village of Melrose Park. Dr. Eric Whitaker, vice chair and principal of Los Angeles-based Pipeline, called Democratic state Rep. Emanuel Chris Welch of Westchester, a member of the hospital’s board of trustees, late in the day to share the news.

Whitaker is best known as the founder of Chicago-based health care investment firm TWG Partners, which was previously involved in the purchase with Pipeline, and as a friend of former President Barack Obama. He confirmed in a Feb. 16 interview that Pipeline intends to file an application with the state to discontinue service at the 230-bed community hospital.

[Whitaker] added: “We didn’t come into the purchase with the idea of, ‘Let’s buy two hospitals and let’s close one.’ We wanted to build a community hospital system in the Chicagoland area to make these one-off hospitals, that are highly vulnerable, viable again.”

* Crain’s last week…

Westlake closed nearly seven months after Pipeline Health acquired the 230-bed hospital in 2019. Despite public statements to the contrary, the firm never intended to keep the hospital open, according to court filings in the bankruptcy proceeding of the entity that Pipeline formed to acquire Westlake.

“Pursuant to the party’s acquisition agreement, the Westlake Hospital was required to be shut down by June 5th of that same year,” bankruptcy trustee representative Allen Guon said during a hearing last November, according to a court transcript.

The provision requiring the closure of Westlake, which hasn’t been reported before, directly contradicts many statements made by Pipeline and its representatives during the acquisition process and transition.

Emphasis added.

* Related…

* After major shakeup, West Sub pulled from the brink — for now

posted by Rich Miller
Monday, Jun 28, 21 @ 9:56 am

Comments

It’s almost like you can’t trust anything people say. It’s especially egregious and confusing when the same people say completely different things in their public and private discourse.

Comment by Responsa Monday, Jun 28, 21 @ 10:01 am
Welch called out Eric Whitaker from the beginning. If you check his public statements from day 1 of the announcement, Welch let Whitaker have it. No one should ever trust that Whitaker ever again.

Comment by He called it! Monday, Jun 28, 21 @ 10:06 am
Isn’t him being a former head of IDPH more relevant than him being an Obama pal?

On another note, I think politicians should not serve on hospital boards. Nothing good seems to come of it.

Comment by hisgirlfriday Monday, Jun 28, 21 @ 10:19 am
why do people (politicians) lie when there are documents that prove they are lying? Do they expect the truth to never come out? Or do they just don’t care?

Comment by Bruce( no not him) Monday, Jun 28, 21 @ 10:21 am
Interesting to note that there are 6 other hospitals within 5 miles of this location, not including a children’s hospital.

Comment by Downstate Monday, Jun 28, 21 @ 10:23 am
for profit healthcare means investors will always be lying when they say they’re trying to help: they’re only ever trying to come in and strip the healthcare system for parts

Comment by Incandenza Monday, Jun 28, 21 @ 10:25 am
What’s Obama got to do with this? He’s got many pals; are we going to mention him every time one of them makes the news?

Comment by Socially DIstant Watcher Monday, Jun 28, 21 @ 10:41 am
Also notable how venture investors in healthcare are regularly demanding more government funding. It’s SOP for them.

A significant number of “venture capitalists” ultimately make their profits from taxpayer funding, and evade debts in bankruptcy court, in all sorts of industries. Without government support the venture capital industry itself would be greatly diminished.

Comment by walker Monday, Jun 28, 21 @ 10:53 am
We should probably change our employee and retiree health care pricing to pay non-profit hospitals more than for-profit hospitals. Over time that can help get rid of for-profit hospitals.

Comment by Dan Johnson Monday, Jun 28, 21 @ 11:53 am
“Over time that can help get rid of for-profit hospitals”

A majority of all revenue comes from Medicare or Medicaid for most hospitals. Hence, a hospital’s profitability (and ability to reinvest in new technology, etc.) is driven by patient volume.
And patient volume is largely driven by quality of service.

Whether a non-for-profit or for profit enterprise, hospitals don’t want to see reduced volumes. But if they can’t deliver a quality service in an area, they are forced to close their doors. It’s why many non-profit hospitals have had to close.

Comment by Downstate Monday, Jun 28, 21 @ 12:08 pm
“Interesting to note that there are 6 other hospitals within 5 miles of this location, not including a children’s hospital.”

West Suburban Hospital is located across Austin Blvd from the Austin neighborhood of Chicago, in Oak Park.

OP has a population of about 52,000; Austin has nearly 100,000 residents; Chicago has a population of about 2,700,000; Cook County has a population of about 5,220,000.

There is nothing remarkable about the number of hospitals within 5 miles of West Suburban, other than the fact that Pipeline Health closed Westlake Hospital (4 miles from West Sub) and lied about it while doing so.

Comment by Ridgelander Monday, Jun 28, 21 @ 4:02 pm
What is the relevance of Whitaker being a pal of Obama? If that is going to be in the headline I’d expect the story to show why it is relevant. Otherwise it seems like using Obama’s name unfairly as clickbait.

Comment by Advocate Monday, Jun 28, 21 @ 5:07 pm
===as clickbait===

I don’t sell clicks or pageviews. If you’d write an alternate headline, good for you. Get your own blog.

Comment by Rich Miller Monday, Jun 28, 21 @ 5:09 pm