The Developer has offered to pay $80 million to satisfy claims in the lingering bankruptcy case of The Villages Health.
A proposed settlement was filed Friday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Middle District of Florida. It proposes that the money will be utilized for payment of claims through The Villages Health’s plan of liquidation.
The bankruptcy process has been expensive.
Baker & Hostetler LLP, a firm that has long represented The Villages, recently submitted a $2.5 million bill for its services in the bankruptcy case. That only covers the period from July until October. A top-notch New York consulting firm was hired to shepherd the bankruptcy process and it has submitted a $5.6 million bill. Many others have lined up and are seeking repayment, including medical equipment companies, medical service providers, labs, maintenance and cleaning companies and individuals. This summer, The Villages Health had to borrow $24 million to sustain its operations.
Earlier this year, a group of unsecured creditors banded together and demanded sensitive financial information from the Morse family. Court filings indicate that numerous documents have been sought from siblings Mark Morse, Tracy Morse Dadeo and Jennifer Parr, as well as “any Morse affiliate.” Among the trove of documents sought in the filing were personal tax documents including K1s, 1099s and W-2s from 2020 to 2025. It appeared that the unsecured creditors were concerned that the pot of bankruptcy money was quickly vanishing and they might not collect the money they are owed. The offer of $80 million to clear the bankruptcy slate could prevent the Morse family from having to reveal the sensitive information about their finances.
The Villages Health CEO Bobby Trinh announced in July that The Villages Health was seeking bankruptcy protection. The bankruptcy was intertwined with a still-mysterious “erroneous Medicare coding” estimated at about $360 million. Trinh was paid a $200,000 “retention bonus” the day before the bankruptcy announcement.
The bankruptcy and planned sale to Humana’s CenterWell, prompted a series of court challenges from UnitedHealthcare, which had previously enjoyed a lucrative arrangement marketing MedicareAdvantage plans to The Villages Health’s more than 50,000 patients. UnitedHealthcare said it was blindsided by the bankruptcy and proposed sale. UnitedHealthcare accused the Morse family of ringing tens of millions of dollars out of The Villages Health prior to the bankruptcy. Humana’s $68 million purchase of The Villages Health closed in November. But that did not end the bankruptcy case.
The Developer’s $80 million proposal “is independent of and reached separately” from a final agreement between The Villages Health and the Department of Justice. In that case, “the former health system has agreed that the federal government shall have an allowed claim in the TVH bankruptcy case to resolve TVH’s self-investigated and self-reported Medicare billing issues,” according to a press release issued by The Villages.