WEST MEMPHIS, Ark. — Justice is what one community organization says it’s after for people who relied on Crittenden Regional Hospital before it closed.
“We want to go wherever the facts take us,” Hubert Bass, president of the Crittenden County Justice Commission, said.
The organization is trying to get to the meat of what really went down, and is leading a push for a grand jury probe into the closing of the county’s only hospital.
“Why did our hospital close? Where did the money go? Where did people’s 401K go? Where did their healthcare insurance money go? ” Bass asked.
The commission wants to know if a crime was committed, especially since Crittenden Regional and the board that operates it went bankrupt, without paying premiums for workers who paid into the retirement and 401K plans.
“Money is being taken out of your pay for a service and it doesn’t go there. We don’t know where it went and that’s the problem. That’s misappropriation,” Bass said.
Gloria Graham, a nurse practitioner, paid into the health care plan for more than 40 years. She opened her own practice a few months ago, but may still be part of a class action lawsuit over her unpaid healthcare.
“Any bills that are out there certainly would fall back on me if the hospital has not paid them and that’s what’s been happening with a lot of the patients we have been seeing in the practices,” Graham said.
Patients are also scrambling to find doctors.
“I have medical problems going on. I think more people are worried about where they are gonna get their medicines and who prescribes their medicine,” Sherry Levy of West Memphis said.
Right now there are more questions than answers.
“There needs to be some responsibility here. What happened? ” Graham asked.
The Justice Commission is hoping to hear back from the judge this week on whether he will call a special grand jury to investigate the hospital closing.
