And Insight Hospital has received about $50 million in advances from the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services to help keep the doors open since it bought Mercy.<\/p>\n
As recently as 2024, Insight Hospital faced a \u201cfinancial emergency,\u201d according to its advanced payment plan, which WBEZ and the Chicago Sun-Times obtained through a public records request. The hospital ran into trouble with a contractor trying to upgrade its outdated billing system, causing \u201chigh levels\u201d of unpaid bills from patients and health insurers. Add high labor costs and materials, and Insight faced potentially \u201csignificant cash flow problems,\u201d the state found.<\/p>\n
These records raise questions about how Insight Health Systems can afford to reopen and operate two more hospitals \u2014 West Suburban Medical Center in Oak Park and Weiss Memorial Hospital in Uptown. The owner of both facilities suddenly closed<\/a> West Suburban in March and Weiss in August 2025<\/a>, forcing patients to travel farther for care<\/a> to hospitals already stretched thin.<\/p>\n Insight, West Suburban and Weiss are all safety-net hospitals, which are often the fabric of low-income and immigrant communities. They typically don\u2019t make much money and struggle to make ends meet.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Black plastic went over the emergency room signs at West Suburban Medical Center in Oak Park after the facility closed in late March.<\/p>\n Anthony Vazquez \/ Sun-Times<\/p>\n An Insight Health Systems spokesperson declined an interview request, responding with a written statement that said the health system \u201chas consistently demonstrated the commitment and willingness to step in where it can help close gaps in access.\u201d<\/p>\n Insight Hospital is an independent nonprofit and would not manage West Suburban, the statement said. Its parent company would. \u201cQuestions premised on Insight\u2019s financial role in West Suburban\u2019s reopening are therefore misplaced,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n But the top executive at Insight Hospital \u2014 CEO Atif Bawahab \u2014 is chief strategy officer of Insight Health Systems<\/a>, a for-profit with several facilities in Michigan, according to their websites. Insight Hospital\u2019s board chairman and two other board members<\/a> are also executives with the parent company, including Insight Health Systems\u2019 chief financial officer.<\/p>\n Insight Health Systems\u2019 interest<\/a> in taking over West Suburban and Weiss emerged in a messy divorce between the closed hospitals\u2019 owners. The proposed settlement agreement says Insight essentially would buy the hospitals for $1 and manage them. State regulators must approve any ownership changes.<\/p>\n Insight Hospital has a small footprint in Chicago. The hospital treats mostly elderly and low-income patients. The majority are Black, public health data shows. In 2024, Insight had more than 1,000 employees to staff a hospital that, at its busiest time that year, treated about 80 patients<\/a>, records show. That\u2019s even though the hospital is licensed by the state to treat about five times more people, records show.<\/p>\n Shannon Bennett, executive director of the Kenwood Oakland Community Organization, known as KOCO, is among several community leaders, patients and former employees calling for<\/a> West Suburban and Weiss to reopen with a responsible leader \u2014 and for Gov. JB Pritzker and state lawmakers to help.<\/p>\n KOCO was a fixture at rallies<\/a> to save Mercy Hospital from closing. Now, Bennett sees how Insight is a resource in the community. He\u2019s used the emergency room twice.<\/p>\n Told of Insight Hospital\u2019s financial struggles, Bennett suggested the state support Insight to save two more hospitals and to be transparent<\/a> about the process.<\/p>\n \u201cWe always get told why it can\u2019t work or why something won\u2019t work,\u201d Bennett said. \u201cLet\u2019s lead with the possibility of a Black community, a very integrated community in Uptown, having the opportunity to think through this with the people who normally don\u2019t engage them.\u201d<\/p>\n He sees Insight as a willing partner while also calling for vetting them to take on more.<\/p>\n He suggested the state offer debt relief for whoever operates West Suburban and Weiss. Their owner closed the hospitals owing the state more than $100 million.<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n State Rep. La Shawn K. Ford (right) at an April news conference with Resilience Healthcare CEO Manoj Prasad, the majority owner of West Suburban Medical Center, discussed the facility\u2019s closing.<\/p>\n Anthony Vazquez\/Sun-Times<\/p>\n A spokeswoman for Pritzker declined an interview. State Rep. La Shawn Ford, D-Chicago, said he hasn\u2019t heard of the state giving Insight money to take over West Suburban and Weiss. Other safety-net hospitals want state help, too, Ford said.<\/p>\n \u201cDo we allow for them to fail?\u201d he said of Insight possibly taking on two more struggling hospitals. \u201cOr do we protect what\u2019s open?\u201d<\/p>\n To reopen the two hospitals, Insight would need to woo the community as well as nurses and doctors who might already have found new jobs. Leaders will need to figure out how to survive.<\/p>\n Big cuts to Medicaid<\/a> public health insurance for people who are poor or have disabilities are coming next year. More than 400,000 people could lose coverage<\/a> \u2014 about half of them live in Cook County. That\u2019s less money for hospitals that treat them.<\/p>\n Kristen Schorsch is a senior reporter at WBEZ covering public health.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Insight Health Systems is interested in rescuing two closed Chicago-area hospitals, even as its hospital in Chicago appears…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":807606,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[97,252,253],"class_list":["post-807605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health-care","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807605","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=807605"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807605\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/807606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=807605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=807605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=807605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Black](\"https:\/\/cst.brightspotcdn.com\/dims4\/default\/418ba9f\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/6122x4083+0+0\/resize\/840x560!\/quality\/90\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchorus-production-cst-web.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com%2Fbrightspot%2F5e%2F66%2F96c379a94cecbfb6a88deb6fde83%2Fwestsubfolo-260402-17-1.jpg\")
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