UnitedHealthcare has accused the Morse family of raking in millions of dollars from The Villages Health prior to the sudden bankruptcy of the “Marcus Welby” physician service.
A judge in bankruptcy court in Orlando has been asked to grant an emergency request for financing sought by The Villages Health, which has pleaded for a $46 million financial lifeline to continue to serve its 55,000 patients and pay its 900 employees at clinics located throughout Florida’s Friendliest Hometown. The judge is being asked to approve the financing request, despite objections from UnitedHealthcare, which has been The Villages Health’s longtime Medicare Advantage partner.
In a court document, UnitedHealthcare claims that it had taken seven weeks since the bankruptcy filing for it to be disclosed that The Villages Health paid out in a “three-year period from 2022 to 2024, a very substantial portion of $183 million, consisting of $64.2 million in ‘tax-related distributions’ and $118.8 million to pay down a supposed ‘line of credit with its major shareholder’ – to members of the Morse family, who own and control The Villages through various corporate entities.” UnitedHealthcare also charges that The Villages Health “claims not to know” how much money it distributed to shareholders in 2020 and 2021. UnitedHealthcare further contends that the $118.8 million purportedly spent paying down the line of credit was actually “disguised equity distributions” paid to the Morse family. During those years, The Villages Health also was paying roughly $10 million in annual rent to The Villages Operating Co. for the use of the clinics…