Local News
Cook Children’s, UNT Health Science Center to receive more than $1 million
By media release
Dec 25, 2009

FORT WORTH – Cook Children’s Health Foundation and the University of North Texas Health Science Center Foundation Inc. will each receive an equal share of an approximately $1 million payment from The Health Care Foundation Inc. under an agreement negotiated by the Texas Attorney General’s Office. Both healthcare providers were chosen because of their longstanding commitment to serving the community’s indigent population.

“Cook Children’s and the UNT Health Science Center are not just world-class hospitals and pillars of the Fort Worth community — they are institutions that have demonstrated remarkable commitment to serving financially disadvantaged Texans,” Attorney General Abbott said. “As Attorney General, I am charged with protecting all Texans’ interest in our state’s precious charitable resources. By allocating remaining assets to Cook Children’s and the UNT Health Science Center, we have ensured that $1 million worth of charitable resources will remain in Fort Worth and will help support two of the community’s finest institutions.”

Funding for today’s agreement stems from the 2005 bankruptcy and closure of the Fort Worth Osteopathic Hospital. The nonprofit osteopathic hospital had provided quality treatment for Fort Worth-area patients since the mid-1940s. At the time of the hospital’s closure, it was the only remaining osteopathic hospital in Texas.

In the 1980s, The Health Care Foundation Inc. dba Osteopathic Health Foundation incorporated to support activities benefitting the hospital. Between that time and 2004, when it closed its doors, the hospital struggled with mounting debt. As a result, in February, 2005, the hospital filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy (liquidation) in Fort Worth’s federal bankruptcy court.

The Health Care Foundation agreed to pay remaining proceeds to Cook Children’s and UNT Health Science Center to advance the provision of indigent health care in the Fort Worth area. In addition, the foundation will voluntarily dissolve as part of this agreed judgment.

As a nonprofit, the Fort Worth Osteopathic Hospital served the community by providing charity care. Because the hospital’s closure reduced the availability of charity care in the area, the Attorney General’s Office worked to ensure that any available charitable assets were used to support charity care in Fort Worth. Cook Children’s and UNT Health Science Center were selected to share the $1 million in proceeds because of their well-established commitment to Fort Worth’s needy patients.