Gardner, MA (October 2, 2023) - To better position ourselves to address many of the financial and operational business challenges adversely impacting our health system, and to regain our stability, on October 1, 2023 Heywood Healthcare, Inc. and certain of its affiliates (collectively, “Heywood”), voluntarily filed a petition with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Massachusetts (“Bankruptcy Court”) for protection under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code, otherwise known as a “Reorganization” under the lead case number 23-40818.
The Debtors in these Chapter 11 cases are:
- Heywood Healthcare, Inc.
- The Henry Heywood Memorial Hospital
- Athol Memorial Hospital
- Heywood Medical Group, Inc.
- Athol Memorial Hospital NMTC Holdings, Inc.
- Quabbin Healthcare, Inc.
- Heywood Realty Corporation
What is a Reorganization?
Heywood is not liquidating or closing; rather, it filed for Chapter 11 reorganization as a proactive approach to reorganize and ensure Heywood can continue operating and delivering excellent patient care for our communities.
Heywood Healthcare will operate as usual and likely will continue to use your goods and services for the duration of the reorganization. The bankruptcy filing creates a distinction between events before the Chapter 11 filing (“prepetition”) and events after the Chapter 11 filing (“postpetition”).
What does this mean for you?
Heywood has made every effort to keep current with vendors and pay down its debt. However, some vendors will be impacted by the bankruptcy filing. As a vendor, you become a creditor with a claim against Heywood for any amounts that are owed to you for goods or services provided to Heywood prior to the Petition Date (i.e., before the bankruptcy filing).
Federal law requires that Heywood stay current with vendors and other creditors on obligations incurred postpetition, or after the Petition Date. In other words, any amounts accrued by vendors for services provided after the chapter 11 filing must be paid by Heywood in the ordinary course of business. This means that any outstanding amounts owed to Vendors will not worsen, as Heywood must make regular payments to vendors postpetition.
Heywood is restricted by federal law from making any payments to vendors on account of amounts accrued prepetition (i.e., before the bankruptcy filing). This means any amounts owed to vendors based on prepetition goods or services provided will be dealt with in the course of the reorganization, likely through a plan of reorganization that will be filed with the Bankruptcy Court and provided to all creditors, who will then have the opportunity to review the plan and vote on whether to approve or reject it.
Where can you find information on Heywood’s bankruptcy?
Heywood has hired a claims agent, Stretto (the “Claims Agent”), that has created a website containing information about the bankruptcy process, key dates and court filings, as well as information on filing proofs of claim. The website is free and can be found here:
https://cases.stretto.com/heywood.
In a reorganization, creditors can assert claims for prepetition amounts owed by Heywood by filing a proof of claim. The proof of claim form, as well as instructions on how to file it and the deadline within which it must be filed, can be found on the Claims Agent website listed above and will also be provided during the course of the bankruptcy process.
Further, as part of the bankruptcy filing, Heywood will list all prepetition debts to each creditor, based on our books and records. These lists will be filed with the Court and publicly available on the Claims Agent website provided above.
If you have further questions, please call the Claims Agent hotline at 855.316.3719 (toll-free) or 949.620.6343 (international).
We ask for your trust and commitment as we move through this process.