WARREN  Insight Health Systems has announced that it plans to reopen its two hospitals in Trumbull County within the coming weeks.

Both sites closed in late March 2025 following developments in the hospitals' previous owner, Steward Health's, bankruptcy case causing them to stop funding for healthcare services.

Hospital leaders met with the Trumbull County Board of Commissioners Tuesday afternoon to discuss the possible reopening of the hospitals and where that process stands.

Insight Health Systems CEO Jawad Shah attended that meeting and spoke with 21 News afterwards about the plans.

Shah said Insight had to disconnect from Steward Health and had to get its own Medicare and Medicaid licenses, a process that took several months. He said its an issue that hospitals changing ownership commonly deal with. 21 News pressed Shah on why the company was not more forthcoming with the public about how much sway Steward still held when it took over the hospitals so they were not surprised by the sudden closure. 

"It's not uncommon during the transitioning of a hospital from one to another that there's kind of a dual licensing," Dr. Shah said. "Medicare looks at it as though you're a new entity, you're just kind of inheriting the previous entity's operations. We didn't really feel it was necessary to project that out there, it's known this is how things work with those who are technocrats in this space."

21 News asked about the risk of taking on a hospital without having full licensing under the Insight umbrella and why it took a closure for the public to know that Insight wasn't really standing on its own when they took over. Shah put the responsibility on the general public to know where to look for information regarding their corporate structure and position and did not feel he needed to explain it. 

"I think it was known for anyone who wanted to understand it," Shah said. "It wasn't a hidden secret or anything. It's a very standard way of how hospitals change to new ownership."

Shah said Insight was unaware of a messaging issue. 

"I think we were very transparent about the situation and what was happening, but some things happened very abruptly," Shah told 21 News. "We did not think that we would be dealt with this way and very abruptly Steward made decisions that hurt us badly."

During the months when Insight was shut down, 21 News reached out to Shah and other company representatives by phone but couldn't make contact with them. Some of the questions the newsroom had for Insight pertained to the community's concern over access to medical records and treatment options.

21 News asked Shah about the lack of communication and if residents can trust them when they reopen. 

"The custodian of the records was Steward and work was being done under them and those records still sit with Steward," Shah explained. "If people want those records they need to get them through that process which is available to anyone. As far as communicating with us, I don't know the details of how you tried to get in touch with us but we've been very consistent in what we've been saying."

That statement raises new questions, as the web site for Insight Trumbull contains a message saying that medical records can be obtained by contacting Insight, not Steward, at (810) 895-4039 or insightmedicalrecords@iinn.com. 21 News has repeatedly called and emailed to get further clarification during the closure and never got any response. 

During the closure, 21 News has repeatedly attempted to speak to representatives from Insight, but the company was unresponsive. Those efforts included contacting Insight's corporate office, where we were told Shah is not available by phone, contacting director of government affairs Irena Vulaj by email and calls, emails and texts to Dayne Walling, vice president for government affairs. Those were all ignored for months even as our messages explained the confusion among workers and community members who simply needed some explanation on how to access medical records. 

Shah said part of Insight's approach during the closure was that they didn't have many answers.

"All we know is that we're closed, we're not going to reopen under Steward, we're waiting for our transfer of licenses, we've been saying that and it's all we can really say," he said.

During that time, Shah said there was potential interest from other hospitals to move in and Insight didn't have much to say without concrete things happening.

Over the last few months, companies have made claims in court that Insight owes them money for medical equipment that hasn't been paid. Some of them have said they want the equipment back. 21 News asked if that could impact hospital operations if they reopen.

"We have satisfied many of them," Shah told 21 News. "One of the things that is important to realize is that the amount of money we put into the hospital was significant, probably in the neighborhood of $30 million or so, and we reached a point where we were no longer getting the revenue that we should be seeing for the work. That's where when they cut that off from us, it was very difficult for us to function at that point in time."

Medical Properties Trust (MPT) is still the owner of the property where the hospital sits. Shah said Insight is in discussions with MPT about owning the property in the future.

"I don't think they have any interest in hurting the hospital," Shah said. "They fully understand what's happened and they're very sympathetic, the leadership is. While they own the property, I believe very strongly they want it to succeed. We're not feeling any undo pressure from them. We do want to ultimately own the property underneath the hospital and that will be a wonderful thing for the long term survivability of the hospital."

Union representatives for hospital employees have told 21 News that they're unsure how many people will come back to work at Insight Trumbull. We asked Shah if there is a plan in place for reopening if they don't have enough employees coming back.

"Well no, if we don't have enough employees, we simply can't open," Shah told 21 News. "We do believe there will be enough and we're putting out inquiries as to who is available still. In these several months, we know several employees are not going to come back, they found other positions and informed us of that so we're going through a tally to sort out who is available."

We asked Shah if Insight is doing anything to prove to employees that the company can be trusted.

He said the actions they took before the shutdown show the company's intentions. He cited moves to prevent an initial shutdown as reasons including changing the hospital from for-profit to non-profit, doing complex cases and increasing the hospital's capacity.

"For us, why are we here? Because we put our word in," Shah said. "It would be very easy for us to not be here. Our idea is the local community needs it, we're here, we're going to continue and grow this. The most important thing is it's a team sport. The team is going to make this work that includes government, the public, staff, everyone."