Document details Tara’s assets
The now-closed Tara Hospital at Brownsville had $2.49 million in assets and $2.22 million in liabilities when the operators initiated bankruptcy proceedings earlier this year. A 314-page document filed last week in Pennsylvania Western District Bankruptcy Court by hospital attorney Lawrence C. Bolla lists 1,147 creditors. Included are various utility companies, doctors, medical supply and insurance companies.
The list of debts owed range from big amounts such as a $182,000 bill owed to a rehabilitation service in Missouri down to a $12.69 debt to Snyder of Berlin in Pittsburgh for potato chips.
Two entries in the filing indicate that the hospital owed a health-care management company with branches in Texas and California a total of $268,179.26. A Philadelphia insurance company is owed nearly $130,000, according to the filing, and the hospital is in debt to a Texas mental health management firm to the tune of $107,269.04.
One listing indicates that Elmo’s, a popular Brownsville eatery that also sells computers, guns and operates an Internet caf?, is owed $51.94.
Various taxes also are listed as due, including $12,500 of real estate taxes due to Redstone Township, $43,500 in real estate taxes due Fayette County and $70,008.14 due to the Brownsville Area School District for 2005 taxes.
A $400,000 loss was indicated in the filing as a result of “employee thefts” throughout 2005.
The filing indicated that an insurance claim pending with AIG/National Union Fire Insurance Co. for an “employee dishonesty claim.” Because that money may be recouped, it was listed as a potential asset, but valued only at $1.
Various bank accounts, a malpractice insurance abatement and a set of physician desk reference manuals also were listed as assets. The biggest asset listed was $1.5 million in accounts receivable to the hospital.
The filing lists 12 court actions pending against the hospital in local and federal courts. Ten of those actions are civil suits, the remaining are a tax assessment and an unemployment compensation claim before the state board.
Also, between March and December 31, 2005, the document listed $158,000 as “charity care to various patients.” A $2,000 donation to the Uniontown branch of the American Heart Association in August 2005 also was listed.
The former Brownsville General Hospital was ready to close until the for-profit group currently engaged in bankruptcy proceedings purchased the facility last March. Among the current owners are businessman Gary Gosai and doctors Jayesh and Kamlesh Gosai. They renamed the facility Tara Hospital after their mother.
But as allegations of unfair labor practices and talk of a strike continued to mount, the group voluntarily surrendered its license to the Department of Health on Jan. 8. By the end of the month, the group filed for bankruptcy protection.
The filing is categorized as a Chapter 11, or reorganizational, bankruptcy proceeding. Financially troubled companies that intend to stay in business generally use such a filing. It’s meant to help the companies find solutions to financial difficulties.
Bolla has said the Gosais chose that filing in order to have some control over the closing process instead of turning it over to a trustee through Chapter 7 liquidation bankruptcy.