The healthcare sector is facing financial headwinds in 2025 after finishing 2024 with the second-highest level of bankruptcy filings over six years of 2019-2024.
The good news last year was that filings decreased by 28% to 57 bankruptcies in 2024 from a peak of 79 in 2023. However, those numbers exceeded the average of 42 filings per year from 2019 to 2022, according to an annual survey by advisory firm Gibbins Advisors.
Senior care and pharmaceutical subsectors accounted for almost half of all healthcare bankruptcies in 2024. Clinics and physician practices reached their highest level with 10 filings in 2024, the survey said.
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The hospital sector had only five bankruptcy filings in 2024, down from 12 in 2023, but the Stewart Health Care System filing included 31 hospitals and was the largest hospital bankruptcy in the last 30 years.
The reasons for the healthcare industry’s financial distress include capital constraints, cost increases and labor shortages, healthcare regulatory changes, issues with payments from commercial and managed care payors and Medicare Advantage claims, and macroeconomic challenges.
Some of the most prominent Chapter 11 filings in 2024 included Miami, Fla.-based clinical care center operator CareMax Inc., which filed for bankruptcy protection in November, seeking a sale of all of its assets.Â
Also filing for bankruptcy in November 2024 was Wellpath Holdings, a leading healthcare provider for prisons and mental health facilities, which filed for Chapter 11 protection to reorganize its businesses and sell certain assets to an ad hoc group of its prepetition lenders.
New Jersey-based hospital and health center operator CarePoint Health Systems filed for Chapter 11 in November 2024 to reorganize its unsustainable debt.
Prospect Medical filed for bankruptcy protection
Major healthcare provider Prospect Medical Holdings, which owned and operated 16 acute care and behavioral hospitals in California, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island began 2025 by filing for bankruptcy in January with plans to reorganize certain medical assets, sell two medical centers in Rhode Island, and divest from another in Pennsylvania through its case.
Landmark Holdings of Florida, which operates six specialty hospitals, files for bankruptcy. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
Landmark Hospital chain files for bankruptcy
And now, the parent company of six Landmark Hospital specialty hospital facilities has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy to reorganize its businesses that are located in three states in the Midwest and South.
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Landmark Holdings of Florida LLC on March 9 filed its petition in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Middle District of Florida, listing $10 million to $50 million in assets and $50 million to $100 million in liabilities.
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The debtor’s largest unsecured creditors include Ventas, owed $13 million; Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services, owed over $6.4 million; and J&R Fuller LLC, owed over $3.2 million.Â
Landmark’s petition indicated that no funds would be available to distribute to unsecured creditors after administrative expenses are paid.
The debtor’s specialty hospitals include Landmark Hospital of Joplin, Mo., which operates a specialty critical care facility; Landmark Rehabilitation Hospital of Columbia, Mo., which provides rehabilitation services and extended care for medically complex patients; and Landmark Hospital of Cape Girardeau, Mo., which provides specialized long-term acute care for medically complex patients requiring extended recovery periods.
The hospital chain also operates Landmark Hospital of Athens, Ga., and Landmark Hospital of Savannah, Ga., which both provide long-term acute care that includes advanced critical care services for medically complex patients requiring extended recovery periods.
Finally, the debtor operates Landmark Hospital of the Southwest in Lehigh Acres, Fla., which also offers extended care for medically complex patients.
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