Steward Health Care is threatening to issue a closure notice for its Sharon Regional Medical Center unless it’s given $1.5 million from Pennsylvania by Friday, according to a filing today by the commonwealth’s top elected attorney in Steward Health’s bankruptcy case.

The filing comes one day after Steward Health announced plans to close Trumbull Regional Hospital, Hillside Rehabilitation Center and several satellite facilities no later than Sept. 20.

Pennsylvania Attorney General Michelle A. Henry’s motion objecting to the closure of Sharon Regional states after Steward Health was told funding for Meadville Medical Center to acquire Sharon Regional had been possibly sourced, Steward Health is “now seeking to be ‘gifted’ funds from Pennsylvania on an emergency basis or they will still close the hospital.”

“The debtors say the funding is being demanded by their lenders; the debtors state the lenders are also demanding hospitals be closed immediately,” the motion states. “The demand for funding is heavy handed and seeks to exploit the situation of the damages that ensue when a closure notice is sent.”

Meadville Medical Center submitted a letter of intent to acquire the facility in downtown Sharon on Aug. 16.To facilitate the deal, “there have been extensive efforts to secure a large amount of funding,” according to the filing, which also warns the financing effort is “preliminary, ongoing and not finalized.”

News that preliminary funding had been worked out was communicated to Steward the weekend of Aug. 17, the filing states.

The motion states Pennsylvania would consider and may agree to the funding request, but wants Steward Health to provide detailed financial information, including a 60- to 90-day “go forward” budget for Sharon Regional so the attorney general can present the information to other agencies in Pennsylvania “to determine if funding can be obtained.”

“This process of obtaining the emergency funding requested by the debtors may take at least two weeks,” the filing states. “It is simply impossible for Pennsylvania to provide funding by tomorrow … .”

The filing also states Steward Health has “badly neglected” Sharon Regional’s property, which needs an “enormous amount” of deferred maintenance due to Steward Health’s “gross neglect, incompetence and mismanagement.”

A court hearing on the matter and other matters is scheduled for later today in Houston, where Steward Health filed bankruptcy.

OTHER MOVEMENT

The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services has received four mass layoff notices from Steward, according to an Ohio JFS spokesman. More information should be available later today.

In addition to Trumbull Regional and Hillside, Steward Health plans to close several satellite facilities in Trumbull and Mahoning counties. They are:

• Steward Health Center, Austintown Imaging, 20 Ohltown Road, Austintown.

• Steward Health Center, Elm Road, the Center for Radiology, 2586 Elm Road, Cortland.

• Trumbull Regional Medical Center for Surgery, 2580 Elm Road, Cortland.

• Trumbull Regional Medical Center Sleep Lab, 8747 Squires Lane, Howland.

• Austintown Rehabilitation Services, 1450 S. Canfield Niles Road.

• Elm Road Rehabilitation Services, 2598 Elm Road, Cortland.

Steward Health filed for Chapter 11 protection listing billions in debt May 6. The move to shutter the local facilities comes despite exhaustive efforts to sell or transition the facilities to new operators, but there have been no actionable offers received, according to Steward.

“Therefore, due to our significant cash constraints we are now in the regrettable, but unavoidable situation where the process of closing the facilities must begin,” a spokeswoman said in an emailed statement Wednesday. “We remain hopeful we can find an alternative solution that would keep the hospitals open and preserve the jobs of our dedicated team members. We want to help save these hospitals and will continue to work with qualified bidders during this process.”

Meanwhile, nothing has been decided regarding Sharon Regional Medical Center in Sharon, Pa., another Steward Health-owned hospital, according to the spokeswoman.

For more on this story, read Friday print edition of The Vindicator or online at vindy.com.