Joel EngelhardtNeuroBehavioral Hospitals in West Palm Beach and Boynton Beach to stay open, keep employees after sale during Wellpath bankruptcy.
Two mental health hospitals in Palm Beach County offering more than 110 inpatient treatment beds have sold in a bankruptcy court proceeding for $2.
That’s $1 for NeuroBehavioral Hospital North, offering 42 beds for nonvoluntary Baker Act patients at St. Mary’s Medical Center in West Palm Beach.
And $1 for NeuroBehavioral Hospital South, offering 71 beds for patients admitted voluntarily at the former Watershed substance abuse treatment facility in Boynton Beach.
The catch is that the buyer, County Holdings LLC operated by Alexis Altier, assumes all the debt from both hospitals, which began operating in the county in 2022.
The hospitals endured $16.9 million in operating losses over 2023 and 2024, NBH’s owner, Wellpath, declared in a bankruptcy court filing. After paying $9.5 million in 2021 for the Boynton Beach campus and millions more to renovate it, Wellpath sold it and does not own either of its properties.
“Since the inception of the NBH Hospitals, they have yet to be profitable despite the debtors’ best efforts,” the filing said. “This lack of profitability coupled with the specialized nature of the business creates a uniquely difficult challenge in attracting potential purchasers.
“Furthermore, and most importantly, the purchaser of such a business must have institutional knowledge of the business’ operations and the qualifications to operate in a manner that will not negatively impact operations and client service.”
Had a buyer not emerged, Wellpath would have closed the hospitals rather than continue losing money, the court filing said. Wellpath of Nashville, Tenn., with operations in 420 facilities across 39 states, filed in November for Chapter 11 relief.
“Importantly, the private sale represents the debtors’ only path forward for keeping the NBH Hospitals open for the benefit of current and future patients,” the filing said.
“In fact, without the private sale, the NBH Hospitals are likely to immediately close, leaving patients without care, employees without jobs and incurring significant wind down expenses to the detriment of the debtors’ estates and creditors.”
Enthusiastic buyer
The losses haven’t dimmed Altier’s enthusiasm.
“It’s important that those beds remain available,” she told Stet News. “Having that community-focused service provider is a 100 percent necessity. That’s why we stepped up, knowing we can fix this. We can turn it around.”
One key to the sale, approved verbally last week by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Alfredo Perez in Houston, is that the facilities will not close and employees will be retained.
“It’s seamless,” Altier said. “We’re changing tires on a moving car.”
Altier runs the Mandala Healing Center, a substance abuse treatment and mental health care facility off of 45th Street near St. Mary’s.
It is named for the mandala, a geometric symbol that serves as a guide intended for an individual to achieve wholeness and balance, its website says.
Therapy is offered “through complete immersion into evidence-based clinical modalities, multifaceted alternative therapies and expert medical management.”
“Through a program of care designed to encourage change, a foundation is created that allows clients to find their higher purpose and reclaim their lives,” the website says.
She also manages the Center for Addiction and Mental Health Programs in Orlando.
‘It would definitely have been painful’
Altier approached NBH at the suggestion of Ann Berner, CEO of the Southeast Florida Behavioral Health Network, which oversees state money for behavioral health care in a five-county area, including Palm Beach County.
Berner said such a closure would have been a blow “to the entire continuum,” of care in Palm Beach County.
“It would definitely have been painful,” she said. “We would have had to reach out and bring in more partners to expand services.”
Aside from inpatient residential beds, she pointed out, NBH assessed 325 to 375 patients a month, directing them to care options often as an alternative to jail.
Without enough beds or alternative facilities, more patients are likely to be jailed or sent for care out of the county.
The county has 279 inpatient beds, a recent study for the Health Care District of Palm Beach County showed.
Aside from NBH’s St. Mary’s campus, patients who are deemed a danger to themselves or others under the state’s Baker Act, requiring a 72-hour hold, have three choices: HCA Florida JFK North Hospital, Fair Oaks Pavilion at Delray Medical Center and the nonprofit South County Mental Health Center in Delray Beach and Belle Glade.
Another north county mental health center, the 44-bed nonprofit Jerome Golden Center for Behavioral Health, shuttered in October 2019. Its site on 45th Street remains vacant.
The study outlined the need for a central receiving facility to assess patients and help them avoid hospitalization or incarceration. The Health Care District is embarking on a $60 million plan to build one.
Joel is a founder, reporter and editor at Stet News. His award-winning newspaper career spanned more than 40 years, including 28 years at The Palm Beach Post, which he left in 2020. Joel lives with his wife in Palm Beach Gardens. He volunteers on the board of NAMI Palm Beach County and the Palm Beach Gardens Historical Society.
