Ellwood City Medical Center Pays Off Debts To Borough

As of Tuesday, December 4, the debts to the Borough of Ellwood City have been cleared for the struggling Ellwood City Medical Center.

Joe Cioffi, Ellwood City’s interim borough manager, confirmed that two checks had arrived on Tuesday on behalf of the Florida-based company Americore Health LLC, the owner of the medical center,  that had paid off the hospital’s existing debt with the borough.

According to Cioffi, Fidelity National Title Insurance Co. of Chicago wrote the checks. The company had closed on a refinancing deal with Americore last week. These checks covered the $190,000 in past due fees from the borough-run electric department as well as a check for $105,000 covering the for-profit hospital’s 2018 property taxes that were due to Ellwood City

“The paying of these two accounts creates a sense of confidence of the Medical Center being a viable part of our community,” Coiffi said.

Coiffi also noted that for the past three to four months, he and the CEO of the hospital, Beverly Annarumo, had been in co-operative efforts trying to solve these issues.

This is all happening a month after a November town hall meeting.

Mayor Anthony Court had called a town hall meeting with hospital leaders due to the amount of negative information that was coming out in the community about operations there. It was during this meeting that Americore CEO Grant White had projected that November would turn a profit and answered many questions regarding the medical center debts and finances.

Cioffi wanted to clear up any rumors residents may have by announcing that these payments to the borough will help establish the hospital is not going anywhere.

According to their website, Americore Health is a new healthcare company focused on saving and revitalizing rural communities through the acquisition and management of rural hospitals across the United States.