Editor’s note: This article was updated to include tax return figures from 2023. Last updated Jan. 7 at 11:50 a.m.
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Insight Health has denied allegations that it engages in questionable practices to defraud insurance companies and sell patients unneeded services, as alleged in a recent American Prospect magazine article.
Insight, which is negotiating with the San Benito Health Care District to take over Hazel Hawkins Memorial Hospital, is accused by former Insight Chicago employees of admitting patients who did not need care and performing unnecessary elective surgeries.
“Insight follows all applicable laws and policies,” said an Insight spokesperson who asked that their name not be used. “One of our core values is to be ethical in all of our work and our primary motivation is to provide patient care second to none.”
In 2024, there were four organizations in the running to take over or partner with the health care district to operate Hazel Hawkins. After two organizations withdrew, the district opted to pursue a deal with Insight rather than a proposal from San Benito County.
BenitoLink questioned Insight on the statements made by former employees in the article, which mirror concerns a group of community members have raised since the Michigan-based healthcare network revealed it was interested in the hospital.
Greg Swett, a San Benito County resident who has opposed the deal, said the American Prospect article confirmed what local opponents have been contending.
“Insight is not able to show through public documents that they are capable of running a hospital profitably,” Swett said, “as demonstrated by Chicago Insight.”
Among the concerns is the company’s lack of experience in rural areas. The Insight spokesperson said the company has been involved in rural healthcare since it acquired the closed Keokuk Area Hospital in 2023. A nonprofit, 49-bed facility in Iowa, Keokuk has been closed since 2022 and has not yet reopened.
The San Benito Health Care District has spoken fondly of Insight, stating that “only insight provided significant financial backing to achieve the district’s long-term goals,” and that “Insight has a long track record of hospital turnarounds.”
However, a group of community members contend Insight is not the right partner.
“The hospital says they need five or six things from the new management and insight does not meet any of those,” Swett said.
Regarding its finances, the concerned residents have questioned Insight’s capacity to invest in the hospital, noting its only nonprofit hospital in operation, Insight Chicago, has not been profitable since it took it over in 2021. It lost $57.9 million in its first three years.
Swett and other community members have also noted that Insight charged its only operating nonprofit hospital millions in management fees even though the hospital was losing money.
According to tax documents, Insight Chicago paid Insight Management and Consulting Services a combined $29.4 million in its first three years of operation.
That contradicts Insight Chief Medical Officer Dr. Rany Aburashed’s previous comments to BenitoLink that the health care group does not charge a management fee if their nonprofit hospitals are not profitable.
The spokesperson replied, “If temporarily pausing management fees helps maintain positive cash flow and protect services, we readily take that step.”
Asked how Insight intends to fund a hospital that has financially struggled over the years, the spokesperson said expanded services will provide revenue to stabilize and grow Hazel Hawkins. He did not provide details of the funding, but said proof of funding was given to the San Benito Health Care District.
“We see numerous opportunities within several specialities and subspecialties due to the large number of local patients having to travel outside of the area for certain care,” the spokesperson said.
He said Insight’s commitment is to build a lasting health care infrastructure. Citing examples of this, he said Insight invested in state-of-the-art equipment and technological upgrades at Insight Surgical Hospital in Warren, Michigan; constructed a medical-psychiatric facility in Flint, Michigan; and opened a neurosciences center in Chicago.
“These are not isolated investments, they reflect our ongoing practice of reinvesting resources— both internal funds and grant support—directly back into the communities we serve,” the spokesperson said.
Some community members, like Swett, are not buying those promises.
“They are flimflam artists,” Swett said. “They talk a great game.”
The health care district, which governs the hospital, filed for bankruptcy in 2023 and is currently in appellate court after the bankruptcy judge dismissed the case in 2024.
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