SHARON, Pa. – The Christian H. Buhl Legacy Trust Board of Directors said it learned through the news media about the commonwealth of Pennsylvania agreeing to release all legal claims related to Sharon Regional Medical Center.
In a statement issued Wednesday afternoon, the board said it was not asked for input or to participate before the commonwealth released all of its claims, which were part of a petition filed in Mercer County Common Pleas Court by the Pennsylvania attorney general’s office against Medical Properties Trust Inc., MPT of Sharon-Steward LLC and Community Health Systems on Nov. 25.
Wednesday’s statement does not indicate if Buhl will continue to pursue claims against MPT on its own, but it stands by a previous statement that it will not surrender the community’s claim against the real estate investment trust, which is the leaseholder for the Sharon hospital property.
The claims filed include concerns MPT-Sharon and MPT had participated in a diversion of hospital assets from the charitable purposes to which the property was originally committed.
“The breaches by [Community Health Systems], MPT-Sharon and MPT resulted in a continuous stream of employee terminations, service cuts, failure to make essential capital expenditures and decreases in revenues,” the claim alleges.
Additionally, it states the actions of those three entities, especially the severance of the real estate from the other assets of the hospital, undermined the commitment made into the original sales agreement, which stated Community Health Systems would expend $75 million for capital improvements to the hospital within five years and continue the hospital’s charitable services.
MPT, the property’s owner since May 1, 2017, said in a statement last week that Buhl needed to drop its claims, including that MPT owes the Sharon community $25 million. If Buhl refused, the deal for Tenor Health Foundation Sharon LLC to reopen and operate the hospital would be scrapped, MPT said.
Tenor agreed to pay $1.9 million to be the new operator of the hospital. The agreement was approved by a U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge Jan. 10.
Buhl claimed on Jan. 15 that MPT didn’t need it to release its claims to put Tenor in position to reopen the hospital, which officially closed Jan. 6.
“The truth of the Board’s Jan. 15 statement has been vindicated,” Buhl’s statement reads. The board also said it will not exercise its claims against MPT in any fashion that interrupts the hospital’s operations.
“We are hoping, along with the rest of the community, that Tenor is successful in reviving the hospital,” the statement reads.
Buhl Legacy Trust was formed in 1893 with a mission to ensure the Sharon area was served by a quality local hospital.