'We will finish what we started in this hospital one way or another': hospital CEO speaks out amid lawsuit

BELL COUNTY, Ky. (WYMT) - A legal complaint was filed against two board members of the Pineville Community Health Center (PCHC) earlier this month.

President and CEO of PCHC Michael Frey and board chair Natalie Frey filed the complaint against board members Dennis Varghese and Sheryl Richter for reportedly misappropriating millions of dollars and withholding information needed for Medicare reporting. Frey said the Medicare cost report brought this to his attention.

“We were asked to sign a Medicare document that is to be submitted to Medicare. We were not comfortable with that with $7 million unaccounted for,” Frey said. “We refused to do that.”

He said Varghese and Ritcher were the only ones with access to the hospital’s finances.

“Your books have to balance,” Frey explained. “They were way off. It was brought to our attention. We go to the people, the only people that had access to the funds and they refused to give us an answer. And with that being the case, we had no choice other than to notify the proper authorities, which we did the very next day. ”

He said as this situation continues to unfold, several hospital employees have been wrongfully terminated.

“They were terminated because they uncovered the truth and to say that it was wrongful termination is an understatement,” Frey said. “So part of my desire and part of what I’m fighting for are not only those people with the entire staff over there, but because we had a family atmosphere in the hospital and we think that it can still be that way.”

Frey said above all he is fighting for the Pineville community.

“It’s truly a tragedy for the people around here because there was so much hope and you can feel it and we can hear it,” Frey said. “That hope is somewhat deteriorating. And we’re going to try to fix that and stop it and get back in the building and continue to build what we intentionally set out to build.”

He said he remains optimistic for the future of the hospital.

“We’re just going to continue to do the right thing,” Frey said. “Focus on what we can focus on and direct people, you know, to believe in what we’re telling them and we will finish what we started in this hospital one way or another.”

He said despite the lawsuit, he would encourage the Pineville community to continue going to the hospital.

The lawsuit is going to federal court but a date for a hearing has not yet been set. WYMT reached out to the defense for a statement on Dec. 6 and Dec. 16, but has not heard back.