WASHINGTON—The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. has taken over the underfunded pension plan sponsored by Forum Health Inc., a Youngtown, Ohio-based hospital and health care system that filed for bankruptcy in 2009 and since has sold off its assets.
The plan, which has about 7,000 participants, is 55% funded, the PBGC said Monday. With $402 million in liabilities and $228 million in assets, the federal corporation said it expects to cover about $150 million of the plan's $175 million funding shortfall.
The loss is the PBGC's biggest so far in fiscal 2011, which began Oct. 1. An estimate of the loss was included in the PBGC's 2010 financial statements, the agency said.
The PBGC's biggest loss in fiscal 2010 was its takeover of a pension plan sponsored St. Vincent Catholic Medical Centers. Like Forum Health, the New York hospital and health care system filed for bankruptcy and sold off its assets.
The PBGC estimated it would be liable for $267 million of the $277 funding shortfall of the St. Vincent plan.