NATCHEZ — In just one month, administrators from Natchez Regional Medical Center will seek approval in bankruptcy court to begin paying back its creditors.

The hospital filed its bankruptcy petition on Feb. 12, as part of a large-scale restructuring effort, and will seek approval to repay its creditors on June 23, NRMC bankruptcy attorney Eileen Shaffer said.

Shaffer and hospital CEO Scott Phillips said the current repayment plan still calls for the hospital’s creditors to be pay in full with interest.

Once approved, the plan will pay back creditors over a five-year period, with payments starting approximately 90 days after the approval.

Shaffer said if no creditors file an objection to the plan prior to June 23 the court will approve the plan then ballots will be sent out to the hospital’s creditors for them to vote on the plan.

Shaffer said she could not see any reason the court would not accept the repayment proposal.

Shaffer said while a “large majority” of creditors have the potential to reject the plan, she can’t imagine why they would.

“I don’t know why they would vote ‘no’,” she said. “They’ll all be paid.”

Shaffer said even those creditors that vote against the plan will be paid back with interest once the repayment plan is accepted.

And while the hospital’s creditors still have a voice on how they’ll be paid back, the amount some of them will be paid is no longer up for debate.

When the hospital filed its bankruptcy petition, it notified all of its debtors how much they were owed.

May 11 was the bar date for any of those debtors to contest the amount they were owed by the hospital.

Shaffer said of approximately 150 creditors in bankruptcy, 59 contested the amount they were owed.

Some of the creditors said the hospital owed them more money while some actually claimed the hospital owed them less than the original estimate.

Shaffer said some creditors said the hospital owed them less while some did say the hospital owed them more than the hospital’s estimate.

“It varies,” she said. “Right now we’re going back to verify and compare records.”

While Phillips and Shaffer said they’re pleased with the progress of the bankruptcy, some creditors said all they can do is have faith in the system and hope for the best.

“There isn’t anything that we can do about it,” Rusty Marks, co-owner of Ketco Advertising Specialties, one of the hospital’s creditor’s, said of the process.

Ketco makes promotional products and is owed approximately $26,000 by Regional.

“We have no ill will toward the hospital,” Marks said. “We want them to succeed.”

But Marks said he’s been through other bankruptcy proceedings in the past where initial plans called for full repayment and he came out with nothing.

“It’s unsettling,” he said. “All we can do is wish them well and wait.”

Phillips said at the hospital not only has the bankruptcy gone unnoticed, it has actually worked to the hospital’s advantage.

Phillips said at least one supplier that had stopped doing business with Quorum Health Resources, the hospital’s former management group, has gotten back in business with the hospital since the bankruptcy filing.

“It’s been very uneventful so far,” Phillips said. “And that’s a good thing.”

Not only his the hospital making plans to pay back its creditors, the facility is current on all of it’s bills, Phillips said.

All bills incurred after the Feb. 12 filing are being paid on schedule, Phillips said.