Louisiana Voice

Who is Rock Bordelon?

Bordelon, of Bossier City, holds an LPN license, owns major interests in three subdivisions in Indiana, a hunting lodge in Texas, an ATV park, an outdoors reality TV show, a private plane, a ranch in Colorado, 15 HOSPITALS in Louisiana, Texas and Mississippi, seven home health companies, eight rehab centers, at least 40 clinics and treatment centers scattered all over Louisiana (though some of those appear to exist only on paper).

He also hobnobs with Donald Trump Jr. and singer Ted Nugent and has poured tons of cash into the campaigns of Louisiana politicians, primarily Republicans—all while accumulating tax liens, lawsuits unpaid vendors and a mountain of debt.

Truth is, in Ruston alone, he purchased the GREEN CLINIC but didn’t get around to paying the group of doctors he owed about $70,000 each in the transaction for about a year and even then, the doctors were forced to hire an attorney to do a little arm-twisting. Several doctors have since left the clinic and at the 70-bed North Louisiana Medical Center, also in Ruston, there is sufficient staffing for only about 10 patients—but occupancy rate is only about 25 percent anyway—because of a wholesale exodus of employees. Meanwhile vendors go unpaid to the tune of some $31 MILLION.

Willis Knighton, a hospital based out of Shreveport, is currently building a facility along I-10 to fill the void being created by NLMC’s deficiencies.

Besides facing trial for false Medicare billing, Bordelon’s company, Allegiance Health Management (it SETTLED the Medicare claim against four of its hospitals in 2018 for $1.7 million), is facing IRS tax liens at its hospitals in MINDEN ($2.4 million), RUSTON ($2.7 million) and an eye-popping $17.7 MILLION in connection with its Acadian Medical Center in Eunice.

Altogether, the IRS claimed last October that six Allegiance facilities in Louisiana combined to owe more than $34 million.

Bordelon attributes his financial woes to changes in Medicare payments instituted in Washington, but at least one newspaper, The Leader in the Arkansas counties of North Pulaski, Lonoke and White was BRUTALLY BLUNT in proclaiming “The sleazy chief executive” [Bordelon] drove Jacksonville’s North Metro Medical Center “into the ground.”

On the other hand, it could be a matter of growing too much too quickly—a classic case of over-extension.

That’s being generous. One person whose job it is to investigate Medicare/Medicaid fraud in states other than Louisiana, said he was unfamiliar with Bordelon or his company but said, “Look for the existence of rehab centers. That’s one of the ways fraud is perpetrated by operators. That’s usually a red flag,” he said.

He could be right. A spot check of a couple of Bordelon’s facilities indicated at least some of his entities might exist in name only.

A Ruston clinic, for example, has a clinic that ostensibly houses a geriatric psychiatric treatment facility. It is supposedly located on the top floor of the old Health South Building across from Green Clinic. The only problem is, the entire building—including the top floor—is unoccupied.

Then there’s Allegiance Home Health of West Central Louisiana whose address is given on its web site as 3177 U.S. 71 in Campti, Louisiana. The big problem there is that address appears to be an empty lot.

Doctors who left or retired from Green Clinic subsequent to its purchase by Bordelon and Allegiance include:

• Dr James R. McWhorter
• Dr. Malene Daher
• Dr. Magee
• Dr. Tonya Slusher
• Dr. Candace Moak
• Dr. Mark Blackwelder
• Dr. Elvin Tubree
• Dr. Kenneth-Metoyer
• Dr. Rochelle Robicheaux-Metoyer
• Dr. Michael Nammour
• Dr. Tommy Smith
• Dr. Billy Smith
• Dr. George Smith
• Dr. Landon Smith
• Dr. Paul Novakovich
• Dr. Kerry Byrnes
• Dr. Derek McClusky
• Dr. Joshua Mandrell
• Dr. David Osafo
• Dr. Shane Phillips
• Dr. William Sanders
• Dr. Charles Tanner (deceased)
• Dr. Jeffrey Weeks
• Dr. Dionne Nolan

It’s no secret that the natives around Ruston are getting restless, more than a little impatient with the turn of events at NLMC. An online forum, Ruston Rants, lends sufficient evidence of that sentiment.

One resident wrote, “Allegiance has killed Green Clinic Northside,” adding the ownership “is slowly killing the old Green Clinic. There are barely any doctors in the main clinic and the surgery center isn’t much better with staffing.”

Bordelon took it upon himself to respond, saying that both NLMC and the clinics were being “tweaked. Healthcare has been broken in Ruston for many decades, that’s not new.”