I would like to respond to a question that was thrown at me at the last county commissioner meeting. “Do you want a Hospital?”

Let me tell you my story on how I became involved with the Legacy Saga. There was an investigative reporter, with Kaiser Health News from California who began following the closures of small rural hospitals. She was a native from our area. She had just completed several articles that were published on the Fort Scott BIZ web site regarding the Noble Health Corporation saga that included the devastating closure of the Audrain, Missouri hospital and the Calloway Hospital in Mexico, Missouri. This Noble Private Equity Investors firm had very little knowledge or healthcare experience. “Noble had received nearly $20 million in Federal Covid relief money in the 18 months before it closed the hospitals – funds whose use is still not fully accounted for.“

 This Kaiser Health News reporter from California was in Fort Scott to research the possible closure of Mercy Hospital and was interviewing people.  We struck up a spontaneous conversation at a local restaurant about the closures of so many rural hospitals. We discussed the fact that Missouri and Kansas placed themselves in a vulnerable state by not taking advantage of the expanded Medicare funds being offered, which affected many of the rural hospitals that eventually included the closure of our hospital in 2018.  Because of my conversation with the investigative reporter, it sparked an interest and I decided to follow the journey of Noble turned Legacy when these same Private Equity Investors were introduced to our city and county officials.  Yes, the Directors of Noble were the same people who called themselves the “Progress Mexico Amigos” who had never run a hospital or navigated the regulatory demands of a hospital. In fact one of them was charged with Medicare fraud, just months before he became one of two directors for Noble.  “Meanwhile the three men who ran Noble were shopping for more hospitals to buy” and we were their victims with a sales pitch heavy on charm.

I have records of the Noble litigations that occurred over the closures of the two Missouri Hospital.  Once they took over The Callaway and Audrain Hospitals they stopped paying their bills. Noble sold both Hospitals for $2 to a Texas based company. There are multiple court litigation cases pending in Missouri.

I have records turned into timelines of the Fort Scott Tribune Newspaper articles that covered the Legacy Saga.

We used ARPA funds in the transaction fund given to Noble Health who under the newly founded LLC Access Medical Advisors, charged us One Million Dollars for the feasibility study. When the president of Noble’s real estate company told the county in late March of 2021 that “An incredible finding from the study. Fort Scott’s hospital building was worth $19.6 million, which could present the borrowing basis of the bonding basis for a really great viable community project to move forward.” That should have been an indicator that profit was the factor not healthcare.

I have a list of all of the companies that were registered on the California, Missouri, and Kansas State Business Websites that did their bidding and due process, only to let the business be forfeited after their gains were met. Access Medical Advisors was one of those LLCs as well as Legacy Strategies LLC.

I have created timelines from documents of all of the people who have been involved in the process leading up to the donation of the hospital building and who continue to be involved.

I wrote a synopsis of my documented findings titled “SOS – Sold Our Soul (Red Flag Alert)”. I shared my concerns and observations with our Kansas State Governor with hopes that another county in our state would not become another victim of the Legacy saga. Kansas State Governor Kelly did respond to my information provided to her.

A hospital setting is always an asset to a community. I had a 45 year career working in healthcare that began at Mercy Hospital. People made generous donations when the new Mercy Hospital was built, because they knew how important having a hospital was to the community. But circumstances changed. The Medicare expansion bill was once again voted down. Covid hit. We donated the building, land and property assets, with a contractual agreement for a hospital, just like what happened in Missouri. Again I am going to say, if Legacy was truly serious about a signed contract to provide us with an Acute Care Hospital and ER why did it not happen?  Once we relinquished the building, should the process of providing that acute care hospital have been the burden of Legacy’s organization as the owner who signed the Donation Agreement?  What happened?

 It appeared that there was a conflict of interest among some of our city and county officials who became much intertwined with Legacy by accepting employment with Legacy and those who were involved in business transactions with Legacy. In addition, funds and taxes were implemented, placing the burden of expenses back upon the community for a donation contract that was not fulfilled.

Yes, I am skeptical, but hopeful that things will be different.  It will be nice to have an organization with CEOS and administrators who actually have experience and understanding regarding the importance of oversight in navigating a healthcare system and its regulatory demands to provide our community with the healthcare we deserve.

deb mccoy

12/27/24