Insight responds to valley concerns after taking ownership of Trumbull Regional, Hillside hospitals

With no objection filed, Insight health is officially the owner of the two former Steward Hospitals in Trumbull County. But, at least for the time being, they will still have the same landlord, Medical Properties Trust, that Steward blamed for their financial problems.

With Insight officially taking ownership of Trumbull Regional Medical Center and Hillside Rehabilitation Hospital, concerns over the company and the hospitals' future deepen.

On Tuesday, Trumbull County Commissioner Niki Frenchko sent a letter expressing multiple concerns with the new ownership.

In the letter, Frenchko said any hospital operation would be “doomed to fail within a few years because of the terms of MPT's triple net lease.”

Remember, Steward said terms of the Lease with Medical Trust Properties were "expensive" and "crippled operations for years."

Insight has plans to buy not just the hospitals, but the buildings they are in also. But for now, MPT will remain their landlord. 

“Our view is that the hospital should be owned by the entity. And we're going to try to move and that's sort of where we are aligning is that is the pathway we're going to choose to take,” said Dr. Rany Aburashed, Chief Medical Officer at Insight Health System.

Even though they will start under MPT, Aburashed assured operations of the hospital will be independent.

“I think it’s very safe to say that we operate completely independently. That’s absolutely true. MPT has no point in our operations whatsoever,” said Aburashed.

21 news asked about a federal lawsuit that accused an Insight hospital in Michigan of a pattern of fraudulent billing. Aburashed said the defendants named were never employed with Insight.

“Those cases occurred well before we took over the hospitals. So there was a transition period where we assumed some of the liabilities from work done at that hospital, and unfortunately it was tied into that,” said Aburashed.

As for concerns over Insight's rapid expansion, Aburashed said they take care not to overextend. 

“We might get a lot of hospitals in front of us. It doesn't mean we take all of those hospitals. It's one that we believe we can apply a strategy that will provide long term stability,” said Aburashed.

Aburashed was not able to go into specific plans for the future of the hospital, but said the company does not plan on downsizing the hospitals.

“I think there’s a lot of people who are very hurt, very worried, and very nervous. You know I can’t calm every fear that they have, but I can just tell you we’re not downsizing, we’re not scaling it down, we’re not taking away service lines,” said Aburashed.

Still, he gave no clear answer for how Insight would be able to separate itself from having MPT as its landlord.