Fort Lauderdale Hospital Receives Benefit Check For Over $1 Million
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FORT LAUDERDALE (CBSMiami) – Holy Cross Hospital in Ft. Lauderdale got a huge, unexpected gift on Wednesday: A check for more than $1.2 million.
Florida's Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater delivered it himself after finding a former hospital employee made Holy Cross the sole beneficiary of her life insurance policy.
"It's a blessing in disguise," said Dr. Patrick Taylor, CEO and President of Holy Cross Hospital. "Our number one project is really to continue to spend those dollars on people who don't have any means of getting healthcare. It's unfortunate but that's just the reality of what we see every day thru our emergency departments or the patients who come in to our physician's offices. It really goes back to us being able to continue our mission."
But it's been a few years since Eileen Fleese passed, the 89-year old died in 2009. Since then the millions-plus-dollars just sat there, unclaimed.
No one at the non-profit catholic hospital was aware Fleece, a World War II Navy veteran and registered nurse, had left it for them.
The insurance company never notified the hospital after fleece's passed away.
"The insurance company was running electronic data on knowing that individual was deceased but no one had come forward and claimed it," Florida's Chief Financial Officer, Jeff Atwater, told CBS4's Donna Rapado. "And so they were just happy to sit with that money in their treasury. And imagine that. But now they're doing the right thing. And here in Florida we led the way."
In Florida alone there is $1.9 billion of unclaimed property, including property here in South Florida. You can check to see if you're on the State's list at FLTreasureHunt.org.