Buy and bust: After Platinum Health took control of Noble sites, all hospital workers were fired

The news, under Noble Health letterhead, arrived at 5:05 p.m. on a Friday, with the subject line: "Urgent Notice." Audrain Community Hospital, Paul Huemann's workplace of 32 years, was letting workers go.

Word travels fast in a small town. Huemann's wife, Kym, first heard the bad news in the car when a friend who'd gotten the letter, too, texted.

"Your termination was not foreseeable," said the letter, dated Sept. 8 and signed Platinum Health Systems, adding that the firing was permanent "with no recourse" and that the "medical facility will be shuttered."