Texas hospitals benefit from demise of the Forest Park hospitals

Several Texas hospital systems are benefiting from the unwinding of Forest Park, a debt ridden chain of upscale hospitals.  Most recently, Austin's St. David's Healthcare announced that it has purchased the Forest Park Hospital in Austin for $115 Million.  HCA has purchased the Forest Park Medical Center in Frisco for $96 Million.  THR purchased the Fort Worth facility for $112 Million and Dallas Methodist Hospital purchased Forest Park's Southlake facility for $17.6 Million.

Forest Park Medical Centers were founded by an anesthesiologist Richard Toussant, Jr. Forest Park’s business model was to accept cash or commercial insured patients only. They did not accept the less profitable Medicare and Medicaid patients. By not accepting Medicare patients, Forest Park was exempt from complex healthcare law such as the Stark and Anti-kickback law. Toussant was convicted of fraud and many of the Forest Park Medical Centers filed bankruptcy.   He faces up to 70 years in prison and will be sentenced in June.

This post was edited to remove the incorrect reference to Methodist Healthcare's purchase of the Forest Park hospital in San Antonio. The Forest Park Medical Center San Antonio was sold at auction for $58.2 million to an entity affiliated with its main lender, Texas Capital Bank.

 https://www.bizjournals.com/austin/news/2016/05/12/st-davids-to-buy-north-austin-luxury-hospital.html?ana=e_aus_rdup&s=newsletter&ed=2016-05-12&u=OcBR6og0x%2BgnBW%2FX0S3spw0e85bc5d&t=1463069242&j=73143262