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VERIFY: Did McLaren really lose money since taking over St. Luke's

On Friday, the community was shocked to learn that McLaren St. Luke's would be discontinuing operations and selling their facilities and assets to Mercy Health.

MAUMEE, Ohio — Although it was well known that McLaren St. Luke’s Hospital had seen its share of financial trouble in the past, Friday’s news that they would be discontinuing operations still sent a shock through the community.

After all, the McLaren Health Care Corporation, based in Grand Blanc, Michigan, promised to invest $100 million into the hospital when they acquired it in 2019.

The investment was not enough however.

On Friday, McLaren released a statement that highlighted declining revenues and monthly financial losses as a reason for the hospital closure in 2 months.

We asked - did McLaren St. Luke's Hospital sustain heavy financial losses prior to their shocking announcement - so let's VERIFY.

SOURCES

  •  7 years of tax returns from the I-R-S for St Luke's Hospital

Even though St. Luke's is a tax-exempt organization according to the IRS, it's still been losing millions of dollars every year.

Back in 2014, the hospital reported net income of $20 million. But in 2016, the net income for the hospital dropped to about $9 million.

By 2019, when McLaren bought the hospital and said they'd invest a hundred million dollars into it, the hospital reported a LOSS of about $26 million.

The hospital began turning things around the next year - only losing $20 million.

Then in 2021 tax records revealed a net gain of $12 million.

Keep in mind - companies are filing taxes right now for fiscal year 2022 - the deadline is next month.

However, on Friday, the health care company said they were on track to lose a staggering $37 million in 2022.

THE ANSWER

Based on the information we have, we can VERIFY - yes - despite a net gain in 2021, McLaren did lose millions of dollars since purchasing the hospital for at least two of those four years, and probably three.

Their claims of monthly losses - is true according to these returns which calculate an entire year's worth of financial numbers.

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