Forum’s pension plan underfunded by $207 million, PBGC says

YOUNGSTOWN — The pension plan of the bankrupt Forum Health is underfunded by an estimated $207,300,000 according to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp.

The federal PBGC, which insures pensions, said in a filing this morning in U.S. Bankruptcy Court that it had calculated that figure, but the filing does not say how the PBGC arrived at that number.

The filing was made on the eve of a 9:30 a.m. Tuesday hearing concerning Forum’s bankruptcy before Judge Kay Woods of U.S. Bankruptcy Court.

Forum Health, which operates Northside Medical Center, Trumbull Memorial Hospital and Hillside Rehabilitation Hospital, filed for Chapter 11 reorganization bankruptcy protection on March 16.

Tuesday’s hearing concerns Forum’s request to end its pension plan and turn it over to the PBGC and to void its nurses’ and service works’ union contracts at Northside.

Also to be discussed at that hearing is a motion by Forum’s creditors to deny Forum a four-month extension of its exclusive time to file a bankruptcy reorganization plan.

In a July 6 prepared statement for the media, Forum said its pension plan is underfunded by more than $100 million, but it didn’t give a specific figure. Most of the plan’s 7,132 participants have retired.

Forum said in an earlier court filing that its short-term survival will be threatened if it can’t immediately begin terminating the pension plan and turning it over to the PBGC.