A 343-bed Granite City hospital has acknowledged delaying employee pay, with workers reporting that at least one paycheck could not be cashed. The emergency payroll fix now involves a promised $1 million loan from the hospital owner and a planned overhaul of its billing operation.
Employees at Gateway Regional Medical Center contacted First Alert 4 after they said they had not been paid. One worker told the station a bank rejected an attempt to cash a paycheck, adding immediate financial pressure for staff at the Metro East facility.
The situation comes three years after Los Angeles-based American Healthcare Systems completed its acquisition of Gateway. The Belleville News-Democrat reported at the time that the purchase was finalized in March 2023, placing the Granite City hospital under the growing operator’s control.
In a staff letter obtained Monday, administrators called the missed payroll a temporary cash-flow issue and said Mike and Evelina Sarian would provide a $1 million loan to fund payroll for hundreds of employees, First Alert 4 reported. The letter said workers would be able to cash their checks by the end of Monday and that Gateway planned to transition to a new billing and revenue-cycle management company. An anonymous hospital source told the station the payroll problem had happened at least four times since January.
Payroll Delay Lands Amid Broader Hospital Finance Fight
The payroll problem is unfolding against a wider legal fight involving Sarian and several hospital companies. Becker’s Hospital Review reported that lawsuits in multiple states allege Sarian diverted at least $14 million from hospital operating accounts between September 2024 and January 2026, while also describing financial strain involving payroll, vendors and other obligations. The allegations have not been proven, and Sarian has denied wrongdoing.
The dispute has included unusually personal allegations, according to the Miami Herald. A Miami-Dade lawsuit alleges that more than $109,000 from a health-system account was used for a Beverly Hills baptism celebration, while Sarian and his wife said the payment was authorized as partial repayment of a loan he had made to help cover payroll.
What Illinois Wage Rules Could Mean For Employees
The Illinois Department of Labor says most employees must be paid at least semi-monthly under the state Wage Payment and Collection Act. Workers who believe wages remain unpaid can file a wage claim with the agency, although the payroll delay alone does not establish whether Gateway violated the law.
For Gateway employees, the immediate test is whether the promised loan gets every delayed check cleared Monday and whether the billing overhaul prevents another scramble. For Granite City, a hospital’s financial stability has suddenly become a matter visible far beyond the accounting department.
