Hagan asks Forum Health trustees to divulge details on bids for system

By William K. Alcorn

YOUNGSTOWN — State Rep. Robert F. Hagan urged the Forum Health board of trustees to make public all bids for the bankrupt health-care system.

In a letter to Phillip B. Dennison, board chairman, Hagan, of Youngstown, D-60th, asked the board to “strongly consider publicizing all bids, and their respective interested parties, regarding potential outside investment in our community and the health-care systems of the Mahoning Valley.”

Hagan also asked for contact information for all Forum Health trustees.

“It is exceedingly difficult to access the people making decisions in this process,” Hagan said. “I know this is frustrating to the community as there has been very little public transparency in the current process.”

Friday was the deadline for bids for all or part of Forum Health. Forum officials and their creditors have refused to make the bids public or say if any bids were received.

“We are going to honor the confidentiality agreement through the evaluation phase and not offer comment until a decision has been made,” said Vince Bevacqua, Forum Health spokesman. “The next decision deadline is Nov. 30. If any information is available, we will provide an update at that time.”

Hagan, however, said the bids and bidders are information he and his constituents want and need to have.

“If there should be some legitimate reason this information is unavailable, please feel free to let me know,” Hagan wrote to Dennison, who was not at his office when called to comment late Tuesday afternoon.

In addition, Hagan said in his letter that there is strong interest in understanding the movement of funds through the Western Reserve Health Foundation.

Both the Western Reserve Health and Warren’s Trumbull Memorial Hospital Foundation were used as collateral for some of the debt incurred by Forum Health, and some fear the foundation money may be available to Forum’s creditors.

Hagan said he is concerned that funds from the Western Reserve Health Foundation account and/or donating trusts may not be used to purchase medical equipment and fund education support programs as they were intended.

“I will be contacting the state attorney general’s office for assistance in understanding this matter,” he said.

Hagan said he receives daily inquiries from concerned citizens from throughout the Mahoning Valley about the Forum Health matter.

“I await your prompt response to this letter as Nov. 30 approaches too soon for those of us with serious questions,” Hagan said.

The bids that were due Friday, if there were any, were solicited by and were to be received by Houlihan Lokey, an investment banking firm hired by Forum, and then presented to Forum and its secured creditors.

Forum employs 3,500 to 4,000 people in Mahoning and Trumbull counties, including 1,400 at Northside Medical Center in Youngstown. The other major Forum facilities are Trumbull Memorial Hospital in Warren and Hillside Rehabilitation Hospital in Howland.

Forum filed in March for protection under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code.

alcorn@vindy.com