After closing rural Missouri hospitals, Noble Health faces investigations and lawsuits

A private equity firm shuttered rural hospitals in Missouri a year ago. It's now facing state and federal investigations, as well as lawsuits.
A year after private equity-backed Noble Health shuttered two rural Missouri hospitals, patients and former employees grapple with a broken local health system or missing out on millions in unpaid wages and benefits.

Noble Health swept into two small Missouri towns promising to save their hospitals. Instead, workers and vendors say it stopped paying bills and government inspectors found it put patients at risk. Within two years — after taking millions in federal covid relief and big administrative fees — it locked the doors.

The hospitals in Audrain and Callaway counties remain closed as a slew of lawsuits and state and federal investigations grind forward.