Health care financier bankrupt

Monday, Nov. 18, 2002 | 11:01 a.m.

DUBLIN, Ohio -- National Century Financial Enterprises Inc., facing lawsuits alleging financial mismanagement over $3 billion of financing it provided to health care companies, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

The bankruptcy is likely to hurt more than 100 health care companies that rely on National Century's financing to meet their everyday expenses, as well as large investors, including Alliance Capital Management, that bought some of the $3.35 billion of bonds

National Century buys medical bills from health-care providers and packages them into so-called asset-backed bonds, which are then sold to investors. The bills bought by the company provided its clients with the money needed to meet expenses.

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