On April 21, Fitzgibbon Hospital in Marshall, Mo., announced it had voluntarily filed for protection under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code and had secured a partner for a sale of the facility. It stated that the move was intended to stabilize its financial position while ensuring uninterrupted patient care and to preserve access to essential healthcare services in the communities it serves. The independent, not-for-profit rural hospital has served Saline County and the surrounding area for more than 100 years.
“The hospital remains open, employees continue to be paid, and patients and residents will continue to receive the same high-quality care from its physicians, nurses and non-clinical staff,” it stated. Added President and CEO Angy Littrell, “Filing for Chapter 11 gives us the time and structure needed to address financial challenges while continuing to provide the critical services our patients and residents depend on every day.”
Fitzgibbon Hospital stated that it “has faced increasing financial pressures in recent years, including rising operating costs, workforce shortages and reimbursement at less than cost from non-negotiable governmental payers like Medicare and Medicaid and non-payment or underpayment for services provided from commercial insurers.”
Over the last three years, the hospital has endeavored to cut expenses by closing and laying off staff in its ICU, its inpatient behavioral health unit, its home health and hospice agencies, and its chiropractic clinic; ceased operations at two primary care rural health clinics in Fayette and Brunswick; and eliminated executive leadership positions. Those moves, stated the hospital, “returned significant annual savings.” Further, in an “effort to monetize idle assets,” the hospital placed an approximately 44-acre parcel of land adjacent to its campus under contract for sale.
Last week, Kansas City-area news outlet The Beacon reported that the hospital plans to sell to an undisclosed buyer for “approximately $8.6 million.” While it couldn’t reach Fitzgibbon officials for additional comment, it reported that the hospital brought in $63 million in revenue in 2025 versus nearly $68 million in expenses. According to its bankruptcy filings in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Missouri, Fitzgibbon Hospital listed roughly $22 million in total debt.
The Beacon added that in the filings, Fitzgibbon’s lawyers cited the Medicaid cuts in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act as a “massive setback to the hospital’s success.” It reported that the lawyers wrote that “this has two immediate and compounding effects: reduced reimbursement and increased uncompensated care. Because rural providers lack the commercial patient base necessary to offset these losses, even modest reductions in Medicaid funding can have an outsized impact.”
According to The Beacon, nine of Missouri’s 67 rural hospitals have closed since 2015. Read its full report here.
