A seemingly insignificant article concerning Natchez Regional Medical Center in the Aug. 26 edition of The Natchez Democrat titled “County rejects proposal,” stated that the Adams County Board of Supervisors had rejected an offer of settlement made by the committee representing NRMC’s unsecured creditors in the ongoing NRMC bankruptcy.

Of course, the proposal was discussed in executive session because the supervisors did not want to jeopardize the county’s legal strategy.

If you had the patience to read the rest of the article on page 7A, some far more interesting items were disclosed. NRMC filed an amended statement of financial affairs, which included a 28 page list of checks written from Dec. 30, 2013, to March 25, 2014, the day before the bankruptcy filing. That list included a check to the Walter Brown Law Firm in the amount of $123,272.44 on March 24 — two days before the filing.

Brown stated the payment represented several months of work for which he had not been paid. He explained further that someone who is a creditor cannot represent the debtor in a bankruptcy, thus the timing of the payment.

That sounds noble of Brown to want to see things through to the end at NRMC. And surely has nothing to do with the notion that if Brown became a creditor, and could not represent NRMC in bankruptcy, that might be the end of any fees that he could charge for his legal expertise. And by the way, I wonder exactly who were “the others who were involved in it” who authorized that payment, and felt his participation was so critical from a number of standpoints.

I am not a lawyer, but having worked for a company that filed bankruptcy, that payment should be viewed as “preferential treatment” by the attorney for the NRMC creditors, and potentially subject to a “claw-back” from the preferred party.

The article also disclosed that local bankruptcy guru Jack Lazarus is involved with the case on the county’s behalf, which I had never heard or seen in print before. I suppose I should have surmised that having seen Lazarus in the gallery at the local bankruptcy hearing that I attended. How naïve of me to think at that time, that he might simply be there as an interested citizen.

The article closed with the disclosure that two checks were written to Healthcare Management Partners, the Scott Phillips firm hired to sell NRMC, on March 21, totaling $95,624.04, but were voided. Thank goodness for small favors. But I am sure that HMP has managed, or will manage to squeeze its fees out of NRMC, before it fades away into the history books.

Of all of the unanswered questions to date concerning NRMC, this article raises one more to add to the list. Just how many attorneys and consultants will it take, and how much money will they all make under the banner of getting Adams County out of the hospital business?

 

Chuck Fields

Adams County Resident