Two of the IRS tax liens filed against Northern Louisiana Medical Center for unpaid payroll taxes that date back to March of 2024 appear to have been settled.
But, at the same time, new multi-million-dollar liens are showing up against other Louisiana hospitals that, like NLMC, are also run by Allegiance Health Management and its owner Rock Bordelon.
Bordelon’s hospital group seems to have nearly $50 million in IRS tax liens statewide, most of which involve failure to remit quarterly payroll taxes. That number is up from $34 million just a month ago.
The jump apparently comes from a pair of liens filed in September against Acadian Medical Center in Eunice that total almost $18 million.
Attempts to reach Bordelon were unsuccessful as of deadline.
Meantime, a check of records in clerk of court’s offices in Caddo and Bossier parishes shows a $1.8 million lien filed in Caddo Parish against CLHG-Ruston, which is effectively NLMC, was settled on Sept. 22.
The same day at $14,083 lien filed against the hospital in Bossier Parish was paid.
Both liens were filed in the spring of 2024.
As of Friday, four remaining liens against NLMC, including one filed in August for $2.4 million, were still outstanding. That means NLMC still appears to owe the IRS just over $5 million.
When the Leader broke the story about the liens on Sept. 11, an NLMC spokesperson told the newspaper all the liens had been paid and the IRS was behind in notifying the respective clerk of court’s offices.
The IRS generally releases a tax lien within 30 days after it’s fully paid.
Records in Bossier Parish show on Sept. 17, the IRS filed a pair of liens against Acadian Medical Center in Eunice, one for $2.9 million and the other for $14.7 million.
The larger lien dates to 2022 and, like other liens throughout the Allegiance network, is mostly unpaid payroll taxes. The most recent assessment was July of this year.
Acadian already had an approximately $1.6 million lien against that was filed 2019, and that records show as still outstanding as of Friday morning.
Allegiance acquired Acadian Medical Center from the Tennessee-based LifePoint Health in 2018. It bought Mercy Regional Medical Center in Ville Platte and Minden Medical Center in the same transaction.
Both Minden and Ville Platte still show outstanding IRS liens, as do Allegiance facilities in Leesville, Oakdale, and Marksville.
Failure to pay the taxes means required deductions for Social Security and Medicare were made from employees’ checks, but not paid to the IRS. In effect, the employer is using the employees’ money.
All the facilities are separate corporations with Bordelon as the manager member. Allegiance provides management through staffing contracts.
link
