Cook, UNTHSC Foundation to receive funds in agreement
Two large Fort Worth health care providers will be sharing $1 million to further the organizations’ indigent health care programs thanks to a 2005 bankruptcy filing.
Cook Children’s Health Foundation and the University of North Texas Health Science Center Foundation Inc. will each receive an equal share of a $1 million payment from The Health Care Foundation Inc. under an agreement negotiated by the Texas Attorney General’s Office. Both local health care providers were chosen because of their “longstanding commitment to serving the community’s indigent population,” according to a release.Funding for the agreement stems from the 2005 bankruptcy and closure of the Fort Worth Osteopathic Hospital. At the time of the nonprofit hospital’s closure, it was the only remaining osteopathic hospital in Texas.
In the 1980s, The Health Care Foundation Inc. dba Osteopathic Health Foundation incorporated to support activities benefitting the hospital. Between that time and 2004, when it closed its doors, the hospital struggled with mounting debt. As a result, in February, 2005, the hospital filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy resulting in liquidation in Fort Worth’s federal bankruptcy court.The Health Care Foundation agreed to pay remaining proceeds to Cook Children’s and UNT Health Science Center to advance the provision of indigent health care in the Fort Worth area. In addition, the foundation will voluntarily dissolve as part of this agreed judgment.
“Cook Children’s and the UNT Health Science Center are not just world-class hospitals and pillars of the Fort Worth community – they are institutions that have demonstrated remarkable commitment to serving financially disadvantaged Texans,” Attorney General Greg Abbott said in the release. “… By allocating remaining assets to Cook Children’s and the UNT Health Science Center, we have ensured that $1 million worth of charitable resources will remain in Fort Worth and will help support two of the community’s finest institutions.”
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