The man who said he brokered a deal to save Fulton's hospital last fall has again come under fire for allegedly using rural hospitals to defraud insurance companies, and the sale of the local hospital still has not been completed.
On Aug. 9, Missouri State Auditor Nicole Galloway released an audit of Putnam County Memorial Hospital in which her office uncovered $90 million in inappropriate lab billings by hospital leadership and associates.
The 14-bed hospital in Unionville is partly owned by Florida businessman Jorge Perez, who appeared in Fulton last September to announce he had saved Fulton Medical Hospital by buying the beleaguered hospital.
On Tuesday, Isabel Schmedemann, the chief executive officer of the Fulton hospital, said the sale has not been completed. She said Perez has been managing the Fulton hospital since mid-September.
"He's the management company," Schmedemann added. "It (the sale) has not closed. He's the one signing our paychecks.
This week, Perez's business practices at rural hospitals elsewhere has come under the scrutiny of CBS News reporter Jim Axelrod.
CBS News aired several reports Monday and Tuesday that questioned billing practices by Perez's company.
In his reporting, Axelrod said he uncovered a scheme designed to raise health insurance costs. Claims made through smaller rural hospitals are reimbursed at higher rates. Axelrod used as an example a lab in Dallas that might get $200 for a urine screen, while the same test billed through a rural hospital might be reimbursed at more than $1,000.
Perez offered to help out a hospital in the Florida panhandle, Campbellton-Graceville, when it was days away from closing. Axelrod reported Perez' associates agreed to pay off the hospital's debt and manage it for a fee of $30,000 a month, a move protested by the hospital's attorney, Michelle Jordan. In the CBS News report, Jordan said more than $120 million was funneled through the facility in 14 months. That hospital's board ended the relationship with Perez.
On Sept. 21, the Fulton Sun reported Campbellton-Graceville's connection to Perez (bit.ly/2IXRQnA). The hospital ceased operations June 30, as previously reported.
Fulton hospital acquisition
Schmedemann on Tuesday said Fulton hospital is still owned by NueHealth, a health management company in Leawood, Kansas. Together with University of Missouri Health Care in Columbia, they purchased the hospital in December 2014 when it was named Callaway Community Hospital. NueHealth owned 65 percent of the venture while MU Health Care owned 35 percent, which - according to the terms of their operating agreement - they could sell back to Fulton Medical Center LLC.
On July 18, MU Health Care announced their intentions to do so. On July 24, NueHealth announced plans to close the hospital by Sept. 22, but Perez announced Sept. 19 at Fulton City Hall he'd bought the hospital and it would remain open.
"I always believe in doing the right thing, surrounded by good people," he told a group assembled in Fulton council chambers.
At that September meeting, Perez promised to let community members rename the hospital, but soon after that, he started advertising jobs at the facility under the name of "Christian Memorial Hospital."
Officially, the hospital is still the Fulton Medical Center, Schmedemann said.
"I'll own that one," she said Tuesday.
She said she started using the Christian Memorial Hospital name thinking the sale closing would happen in early to mid-December.
"We did that probably prematurely," Schmedemann said. "I regret that we did that."
She added she still reports to the board of directors at NueHealth.
"As soon as it does (close), we'll have to notify the state," she said of the sale of the hospital to Perez and company.
As of Tuesday, no business in Missouri has been registered in the name of Jorge Perez, nor in the name of his company, EmpowerHMS. According to a website, EmpowerHMS.com, the company is located in North Kansas City, Missouri, and Perez is CEO.
Dave Dillon, vice president of public and media relations with the Missouri Hospital Association, said Tuesday that a Sept. 15 change of ownership was reported to them. Dillon said the ownership reportedly changed from the Fulton Medical Center to EmpowerHMS.
The state Department of Health and Senior Services lists licensed hospitals. The facility is listed as Fulton Medical Center LLC and the administrator/CEO is listed as Schmedemann. The document said the hospital's current license will expire Dec. 31. It does not list the owner. Sara O'Connor, chief of the Office of Public Information for the DHSS, stated, "The information requested is not releasable under Chapter 197.477 RSMo."
Perez was not available Tuesday for comment for this story, according to his office.