Some of Ohio's top Republican representatives have requested Attorney General Pam Bondi investigate the closure of two hospitals in Trumbull County.
Insight Health Systems said it was forced to close Insight Hospital & Medical Center Trumbull and Insight Rehabilitation Hospital Hillside in March, furloughing nearly 700 employees, because the hospitals' previous owner, Steward Health Care, failed to pay them for patient care.
U.S. Sen. Jon Husted, U.S. Rep. David Joyce and U.S. Rep. Michael Rulli wrote a letter asking the Department of Justice to investigate Steward’s financial decisions and allegations that the system committed Medicaid and Medicare billing fraud and misused federal funds.
The closures resulted in the loss of Trumbull County’s only behavioral health provider—depriving health care to thousands of underserved and rural residents across the Mahoning Valley, the letter said.
Insight told staff in a memo it is working to resume control over the hospital’s finances, but that it would take roughly six months to complete.
Husted, Joyce and Rulli said the closure of rural hospitals is not just a local issue, but a national crisis that especially harms low-income and medically vulnerable people.
"If fraud or abuse played any part in this outcome, it is essential that those responsible be hold accountable," the letter read. "The citizens of Mahoning Valley deserve answers, and we must work collectively to ensure that such closures are not allowed to proceed without rigorous scrutiny."
The full letter can be read here.
