WARREN — Today’s sale hearing for bankrupt Steward Health Care facilities in Ohio, Pennsylvania and one in Florida has been postponed “to a date to be determined,” according to a court filing.

The filing Sunday also delays sale hearings for Stewardship Health, the company’s nationwide physician group, and hospitals in Arkansas, Louisiana and Massachusetts from today to Friday; and for hospitals in Arizona and others elsewhere from Aug. 22 to Sept. 10.

The filing did not provide a reason for the delays.

Steward Health operates Trumbull Regional Medical Center in downtown Warren, Hillside Rehabilitation Hospital in Howland and Sharon Regional Medical Center in downtown Sharon, Pa. It does not operate any other facility in Ohio or Pennsylvania.

The delay does not impact a local group’s plan to submit a formal offer to acquire Trumbull Regional’s assets from Steward Health, John T. Woods, secretary for Warren City Hospital, the organization established to organize the purchase, said Monday.

The group of health care professionals and community and business leaders emerged Aug. 6, announcing their effort to try to buy Trumbull Regional. The plan does not include Hillside or Sharon Regional.

“I know there have been other hospitals talking with all of the powers that be,” Woods said. “I have no idea if anybody else is going to submit a formal bid, and we haven’t submitted a formal bid at this time.”

“We aren’t done. We are still talking with the local foundations. We are still talking with consultants we have engaged, and it doesn’t surprise me they (Steward Health) kicked it down the road,” Woods said.

EDUCATION PROGRAM

Meanwhile, an Aug. 30 hearing remains on a request from Western Reserve Health Education, Inc., a nonprofit medical education and residency training program affiliated with Trumbull Regional, Hillside and Sharon Regional, to compel Steward Health to assume or reject a contract it has with the group for the program at Steward Health’s facilities.

A court filing Aug. 7 states Western Reserve Health Education is owed about $208,000 from Steward Health. The amount represents “costs and expenses paid” by the nonprofit “to continue the graduate medical education programs” that Steward Health is obligated to pay under the agreement.

The filing also states there are “numerous additional” debts and expenses Steward Health owes to faculty, third parties and vendors that “have not been paid and are in default.”

Steward Health receives the funding from state and federal sources to support its residency education program. Western Reserve Health Education sponsors three residency programs and one fellowship program.

Without relief, the filing states, Western Reserve Health Education “is in jeopardy of losing its accreditation, its ability to fill vacant resident positions, its current faculty, and educational resources and training sites. It’s for those reasons, “and in order to mitigate its damages, it is necessary” that Steward Health assume the agreement and “cure any default, or reject same, on an expedited basis …,” the filing states.

The agreement was first signed in 2018. It was renewed in May, allowing for continuation of services after Steward Health filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection as well as allowing it to keep receiving the state and federal funding for each Western Reserve Health Education resident training in their hospital, the filing states.

Steward Health “is enjoying the benefits” of the funding agreement by receiving Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and Ohio Medicaid funding post-petition, “but fails to cure its default by paying for” Western Reserve Health Education’s services, the filing states.

According to the filing, some of the “critical expenses” that have not been paid under the agreement include software used to create Trumbull Regional’s cost report to pay it for each Western Reserve Health Education student, a fee for a program that matches medical school graduate applicants into residency programs and fees to Northeast Ohio Medical University, which offers several mandatory course and clinical standard assessment tests to residents.

Steward Health did not pay fees for 2022 and 2023 examinations and “therefore, residents were not allowed to participate in 2024,” the filing states. Although the responsibility of Steward Health, Western Reserve Health Education paid all outstanding fees to NEOMED in 2024, allowing residents to participate in the 2024-25 school year, the filing states.

Also, multiple faculty members have not been paid, some dating back to 2023, “and many are threatening to stop teaching if they are not paid soon,” the filing states.

In addition, AVI Food Systems, a Warren-based food vending company, has not been paid and will not load money on cards for residents to purchase food from AVI vending machines when the hospital’s cafeteria is closed, the filing states.

Budgeted expenses in the funding agreement have been paid by Western Reserve Health Education “to prevent collapse of the training programs” and have not been reimbursed, the filing states.

“In short, the health of the entire residency training program and, thus, the treatment of patients” at Trumbull Regional “will be directly and severely impacted” if Steward Health “continues to avoid assumption and payment” under the contract, the filing states.