Wednesday marked a major shift in the provision of health care in northern Arizona as El Rio Health, a Tucson-based community health provider, officially acquired most of the assets of the bankrupt North Country HealthCare, hired most of North Country’s remaining employees and assumed responsibility for delivering patient care at North Country’s 12 remaining clinic locations, which have all been renamed Elk Ridge Community Health.
The closing of the asset sale does not bring an end to current and former employees’ attempts to recoup the costs of unanticipated medical bills they accrued after North Country quietly stopped paying its portion of a self-funded health insurance plan. But it does mark the end of one fraught chapter in the messy saga of the nonprofit’s collapse — and the beginning of another, hopefully brighter, chapter.
About the Author
To get daily local headlines delivered to your inbox each morning, sign up for newsletter!
