THU AM News: NeuGen files lawsuit against MassMutual; Froedtert ThedaCare Health breaks ground on $84M hospital project in Oshkosh

March 28, 2024

— NeuGen LLC has filed a lawsuit against MassMutual, alleging the Massachusetts investment firm breached a contract and caused nearly 300 people to lose about $3 million in retirement savings.

After Madison-based NeuGen announced plans to lay off about 110 employees in 2022, MassMutual ended the company’s participation in its retirement fund and paid out participants’ investment “at a depressed market value,” according to the complaint.

“They took the opportunity to kick us out of the fund,” NeuGen President and CEO Vaughn Vance said yesterday in an interview. “And in addition, notified us that the employees would not be getting the dollars that they see in the statement every month. Some or most of them would be given 18% less because of the market value of the investment.”

NeuGen participants had about $21.5 million in the fund and collectively lost nearly $2.8 million, according to Vance. He said the fund offering from MassMutual was presented as a stable value option that would provide a “steady tortoise way toward” retirement security. MassMutual had managed retirement funds for NeuGen since 2013.

“It was a choice that MassMutual made, we didn’t ask them to make it,” he said. “And it was in their best interest, not in the best interest of our participant employees.”

A spokesperson for MassMutual didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment on the lawsuit.

Vance says NeuGen’s legal costs are already in the six figures, and expects the legal fight to be an expensive one. He doesn’t hold out hope the company will recoup that amount, noting the legal effort only seeks to get the money back for fund participants.

“I’ve had a lot of people suggest to me, don’t take this on, you’re going up against a $33 billion company,” he said. “They clearly have more attorneys than I have staff. And they’re used to winning, because they can afford to drag it out and make it difficult … We’re going to hold them accountable. It would be a mistake for them to doubt our resolve.”

The lawsuit was filed yesterday in Massachusetts court, and Vance said he doesn’t expect a resolution short of a settlement before the end of this year.

See the release.

— Froedtert ThedaCare Health has broken ground on a new $84 million hospital project in downtown Oshkosh, slated for completion in 2025.

The health system this week announced the groundbreaking for the hospital, envisioned as a “smaller-scale” facility offering 24/7 access to emergency and inpatient care.

The 85,000-square-foot hospital will include x-ray, ultrasound, mammogram, MRI and lab services, as well as a retail pharmacy, surgery center and medical office building, according to the release. The health system says it expects to create 60 new jobs through the project.

The release notes nearly three-fourths of Oshkosh residents currently live more than 15 minutes away from a hospital or emergency room

“When minutes count, it is critical to have local access to comprehensive emergency care to support the best possible outcomes for our patients,” Froedtert ThedaCare Health President Imran Andrabi said in a statement.

The groundbreaking comes about a little more than a month after the health system broke ground on a new health care facility in Fond du Lac, also expected to be complete in 2025.

See more on the Oshkosh project in the release.

For more of the most relevant health care news, reports on groundbreaking research in Wisconsin, links to top stories and more, sign up today for the free daily Health Care Report from WisPolitics and WisBusiness.com.

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— Madison-based Fetch has announced a new rewards system for mobile gaming called Fetch Play.

It was created in partnership with a mobile games platform called adjoe, according to yesterday’s release. The announcement comes on the heels of Fetch announcing $50 million in new financing from Morgan Stanley.

“Our journey started with rewarding consumers for what they buy and where they shop,” Fetch CEO and founder Wes Schroll said in a statement. “Now, we’ve taken an exciting next step, in partnership with adjoe, by introducing Fetch Play, which rewards people for playing mobile games. Gaming presents a tremendous opportunity for us to bring joy to people during another moment in their day.”

In a beta version of Fetch Play, early users earned the equivalent of $10 million in gift cards, according to the release. The company says 85% of engaged users of the mobile gaming extension keep up with weekly receipt scanning, which is 10% higher than nonplayers.

A company spokesperson also said integrating the new capability into the app is “delivering measurable results” by boosting app open rates by 5.42% month-over-month.

Fetch Play can also use in-game data to create “personalized offers and promotions within the gaming environment” to boost brand awareness and engagement, according to the release.

Jonas Thiemann, managing director of adjoe and CEO and founder of parent company applike group, notes consumer gaming is a $200 billion industry. He says it “represents massive untapped potential in advertising and increasing customer lifetime value.”

See more in the release, and listen to an earlier podcast with Schroll.

— Economic hardships, pandemic woes and rising housing costs over the past two years reversed Wisconsin’s previously declining homelessness trend, a new Wisconsin Policy Forum report finds.

The nonpartisan research group found Wisconsin’s homeless population rose to 4,861 in 2023 from 4,237 in 2021, according to the report. The trend before that was a steady decline from 6,055 in 2014. While the federal and state governments during the pandemic distributed funding and other resources to address homelessness, much of the funding is coming to an end, the report notes.

Another reason the report cites for the latest trend is the shift in focus by programs and agencies addressing homelessness to funding more permanent housing opportunities and less for temporary housing.

Wisconsin has seen a decrease of 2,120 temporary housing beds since 2014 and an increase of 4,720 permanent beds in the same time, according to the report.

“The steady increase in permanent beds indicates that while the number of unsheltered and temporarily sheltered individuals have decreased on the point-in-time reports, the demand for housing services has not,” the report adds.

Driving the shift in focus to permanent from temporary housing is the way HUD distributes funding. HUD awards to transitional housing programs in Wisconsin decreased to $100,000 in 2022 from $9.7 million in 2013, according to the report.

But the report also notes HUD increased funding to address homelessness in Wisconsin to $32.4 million in 2022 from $21.9 million in 2013, an increase nearly double the rate of inflation during the same time.

— Pandemic relief funds targeting homelessness are also starting to time out, while the housing market in Wisconsin has remained hot.

The median home price in Wisconsin grew to $285,000 in 2023 from $147,750 in 2014, the report notes. Median monthly rent in Wisconsin also grew to $992 in 2022 from $782 in 2017, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Following the COVID-19 pandemic taking hold of the country, the federal government provided $3.96 billion across the country to housing initiatives and $90 million to Wisconsin for emergency shelter and hotel voucher programs in the 2020 CARES Act.

But the report also notes there could be even more homeless Wisconsinites because the data used only includes those in temporary housing programs who appear in night counts during the last week of January each year. Those who might be staying with friends or relatives or participating in permanent housing programs are not included.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development funds resources in four designated areas of Wisconsin: Milwaukee, Dane and Racine counties as well as a fourth area encompassing the other 69 counties called the Balance of Wisconsin region.

The Balance of Wisconsin contains 40.8% of the state homeless population, Milwaukee County contains 30.7%, Dane County contains 24% and Racine County contains 4.5%, according to the report.

The 69 counties reported a net decrease between 2014 and 2023 of 629 people; Milwaukee County reported a decrease of 443; Dane County reported a decrease of 153; and Racine County reported an increase, but not enough to show a significant trend shift, the report notes.

The previous declining trend of homeless people in the state was largely driven by those who used transitional housing programs and are now likely no longer seeking aid, using more permanent housing programs or are turning to friends and family for support, the report notes.

Wisconsinites using transitional housing programs declined to 797 in 2023 from 2,541 in 2014.

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