A Missouri-based behav-
ioral health care provider, Preferred Family Healthcare, Inc., is suing the nonprofit that bought its assets, claim- ing Quapaw House Inc. of Hot Springs owes about $2.6 million.
The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Hot Springs says Preferred Family agreed at the Oct. 12, 2018 sale to car- ry a note that Quapaw House was supposed to repay, total- ing $533,390.
Quapaw also agreed to pay rent of $140,000 per month, according to the lawsuit filed last month.
By June 1, 2019, Quapaw House “defaulted on both the carry back note and most of the rent payments to PFH,” according to the lawsuit, Pre- ferred Family Healthcare Inc., vs. Quapaw House Inc. and sev- en Quapaw House executives.
Quapaw House has not yet responded to the lawsuit, and the company couldn’t be reached immediately late Monday.
The Hot Springs nonprofit was in “a critical situation” that resulted in late and in- sufficient paychecks being issued for several weeks, The Sentinel-Record newspaper reported in March.
Preferred Family, once
Arkansas’ largest provider of behavioral health services to Medicaid patients, sold its Arkansas assets after several former administrators were charged in a public corrup- tion scandal that spanned Ar- kansas and Missouri.
Four former Arkansas state lawmakers and a former Arkansas lobbyist are among those who have pleaded guilty to or been convicted of federal crimes over their dealings with the nonprofit and its subsidiaries. Still fac- ing charges are former Pre- ferred Family administrators Tom and Bontiea Goss, a married couple. Their trial is scheduled for 2021.