Lower Bucks Hospital files for bankruptcy

Lower Bucks Hospital filed yesterday for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

The 183-bed Bristol hospital, which has lost $14 million over the last three years, has been considering offers of sale for years. Last week, it named a new chief executive officer, Albert Mezzaroba, former CEO of the Convention Center and chief legal counsel to Philadelphia City Council President Anna C. Verna.

He declined to comment yesterday. But hospital spokesman John Coffman said bankruptcy would make Lower Bucks a "more financially stable hospital."

"Nothing's going to change" for the hospital's 1,000 employees or its patients, Coffman said.

He blamed the hospital's financial predicament, in part, on charity care, which has increased from $2 million a year in 2002 to $12 million now.

In its filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, the hospital lists its two largest creditors as Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. for $35 million in pension obligations and Bank of New York Mellon Trust Co. for $24.9 million in bond debt. All other listed debts are below $280,000.

The hospital missed a $915,000 bond payment Dec. 15. It lists this, and the potential reaction of the bondholders, as a "primary cause" of the bankruptcy.

Mark Warshaw, a staff representative for the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals, which has been briefed regularly on Lower Bucks' status, said the hospital had long considered bankruptcy as part of a sale because potential buyers would not want to assume its debt. His union is currently in negotiations with the hospital.

Warshaw said he was optimistic about the bankruptcy. "We view both the new CEO and the bankruptcy as an opportunity for a fresh start for the hospital and for the community," he said.

Lower Bucks Hospital stands to receive about $750,000 a year as its slice of new table-games gambling revenue.