<\/p>\n
Healthcare Systems of America operates five hospitals in South Florida.<\/p>\n
Miami Herald staff<\/p>\n
The operator<\/a> who runs Palmetto General and four other South Florida hospitals is taking its former chairman and CEO to court, accusing him of trying to lock it out of several bank accounts he still has access to that are critical for payroll and patient care services.<\/p>\n The lawsuit alleges Michael \u201cMike\u201d Sarian \u201ccontacted City National Bank and improperly attempted to remove authorized signatories and add signatories of his choosing,\u201d including his wife Evelina Sarian, a day after he was quietly ousted as chair and CEO of Healthcare Systems of America\u2019s (HSA) Florida division due to another money-related allegation. Evelina Sarian, who is currently running for a city council position in Glendale, California, on LinkedIn lists herself as HSA\u2019s vice president of business development.<\/p>\n An email attached to the 353-page complaint filed by HSA on March 5 in Miami-Dade Circuit Court shows that on March 4, the day after Sarian was removed as CEO, he asked City National Bank to remove two HSA officers, including Chief Financial Officer Carlos Alcazar, from all bank accounts \u201casap\u201d and to add Evelina, his wife, \u201cas a signor on all accounts effective immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n Reached by the Miami Herald, Quinn Emanuel, the law firm representing Sarin in the case, declined to comment.<\/p>\n Late Friday afternoon, Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Thomas Rebull issued a temporary restraining order barring Sarian from accessing or transferring funds from the bank accounts and from presenting himself as a representative of HSA. The judge\u2019s order instructed City National Bank to remove him from the accounts.<\/p>\n The bank accounts hold money the health system receives primarily from Medicare, Medicaid and commercial health insurance payors \u2014 including United and Blue Cross Blue Shield \u2014 for services related to patient care at Palmetto General Hospital in Hialeah, Coral Gables Hospital, Hialeah Hospital, North Shore Medical Center in North Miami-Dade and Florida Medical Center in Lauderdale Lakes. The funds in the accounts are used for hospital operations, including payroll, vendor payments and essential services.<\/p>\n In a statement to the Herald, HSA Florida said that the issue with the bank accounts would not impact patient care and that it would like \u201cto reassure our patients, staff, and the communities we serve that the current dispute has no impact on our clinical operations.\u201d<\/p>\n What led to the CEO\u2019s removal<\/p>\n HSA\u2019s suit against Sarian, who founded the company, comes after he faced another financial-related accusation earlier this month. He was removed from his CEO position on March 3 for the Florida hospitals after allegations surfaced that \u201che had allegedly taken funds from the bank account\u201d of HSA Florida\u2019s parent company \u201cin an unexplained manner,\u201d according to the lawsuit filed by the health system.<\/p>\n His ousting was led by hospital landlord Medical Properties Trust, which has a master lease and other financial agreements with the health system that gives it \u201cproxy rights over governance matters of the HSA Florida System.\u201d The landlord used the allegations to exercise its voting power during a special meeting of the governing body of HSA\u2019s Florida division on March 3 to oust Sarian and appoint Faisal Gill, an attorney for the health system, as HSA Florida CEO and sole member of its board of directors, according to court documents.<\/p>\n Medical Properties Trust in a statement<\/a> earlier this week said it\u2019s not involved in the lawsuit and that it doesn\u2019t expect the situation to impact its ability to get rent from HSA, which is \u201cfully current on rent owed.\u201d<\/p>\n The Herald has not been able to confirm if Sarian\u2019s ousting is specifically related to HSA\u2019s Florida division or if he was ousted from the entire health system, which also runs at least one hospital in Louisiana and two in Texas, according to its website. His photo and biography still appeared on HSA\u2019s website Friday.<\/p>\n Who is HSA\u2019s CEO? HSA, which was founded by Sarian in 2024, took over the five South Florida hospitals from bankrupt Steward Health Care System that same year as part of a deal Steward made to thin debt. At the time of the deal, HSA, which was registered in the state of Nevada, told the Herald the company was mostly managed by the same team that oversees Los Angeles-based American Healthcare Systems. Sarian at the time was listed as the CEO for both companies.<\/p>\n Sarian\u2019s biography describes him as having over 30 years of experience in the healthcare industry. Before his role at HSA, he served as president of hospital operations at Prime Healthcare and served on the boards of the California Hospital Association and the Southern California Hospital Association. He recently spoke to a graduating class of students at Florida National University in September.<\/a><\/p>\n He\u2019s also listed in Nevada business records as the director of Nor Healthcare Systems Corp, a recently registered company that last year bought six bankrupt California hospitals<\/a> for millions from Sarian\u2019s former employer Prospect Medical Group Holdings, whose hospital landlord is also Medical Properties Trust. The two companies had a legal tussle in January shortly after the sale closed, with Prospect accusing NOR of owing it millions in overdue payments, including not paying medical supply vendors<\/a> and other debts, according to CT Insider.<\/p>\n Gill, the new HSA Florida CEO, is listed as the lead attorney representing Nor Healthcare Systems during Prospect Medical Group\u2019s ongoing bankruptcy case. His LinkedIn also lists him as the chief legal officer of American Healthcare Systems.<\/p>\n HSA\u2019s Miami-Dade lawsuit also names City National as a defendant, with the health system saying the bank has refused to remove Sarian as a signatory from the accounts without a court order or an agreement from the parties. Two active HSA executives still remain as authorized signers on the accounts.<\/p>\n \u201cEach side claims to be in control of the HSA entities that hold accounts\u201d at the bank and \u201ceach side is asking us to remove the other side from access and control over those accounts,\u201d City National attorney Mario Carballo wrote in an email to the law firms involved in the case, noting that it \u201cis not the role of the bank\u201d to determine who should still have access to the accounts.<\/p>\n What the health system had asked for<\/p>\n The health system had asked Judge Rebull to immediately file a temporary restraining order and temporary injunction to prevent Sarian from \u201caccessing, withdrawing, transferring, or directing the transfer of funds\u201d from any HSA bank accounts at City National Bank of Florida and prevent him from representing to the bank or other financial institutions that \u201che has authority to act on behalf\u201d of HSA. Rebull did so on Friday.<\/p>\n \u201cGiven the nature of these accounts \u2014 receiving daily patient-care deposits that cannot quickly be redirected \u2014 any interference with the Bank Accounts threatens immediate disruption to payroll, vendor payments, and patient care operations,\u201d Miami-Dade attorney David Geller, who is representing the HSA hospitals in the suit, wrote in the company\u2019s emergency motion.<\/p>\n The complaint stated that the \u201camount in controversy exceeds $750,000.\u201d<\/p>\n HSA Florida, in a statement provided to the Herald through its attorney, said it\u2019s \u201cconfident that the legal dispute will be resolved in the near future\u201d and that \u201cour hospitals remain fully operational, and our commitment to excellence in healthcare is unwavering. HSA will continue to provide high-quality care to our patients every day.\u201d<\/p>\n This story has been updated to reflect a decision late Friday afternoon by Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Thomas Rebull.<\/p>\n This story was originally published March 13, 2026 at 4:21 PM.<\/p>\n Michelle Marchante<\/a><\/p>\n Miami Herald<\/p>\n Michelle Marchante covers the pulse of healthcare in South Florida and also the City of Coral Gables. Before that, she covered the COVID-19 pandemic, hurricanes, crime, education, entertainment and other topics in South Florida for the Herald as a breaking news reporter. She recently won first place in the health reporting category in the 2025 Sunshine State Awards for her coverage of Steward Health\u2019s bankruptcy. An investigative series about the abrupt closure of a Miami heart transplant program led Michelle and her colleagues to be recognized as finalists in two 2024 Florida Sunshine State Award categories. She also won second place in the 73rd annual Green Eyeshade Awards for her consumer-focused healthcare stories and was part of the team of reporters who won a 2022 Pulitzer Prize for the Miami Herald\u2019s breaking news coverage of the Surfside building collapse. Michelle graduated with honors from Florida International University and was a 2025 National Press Foundation Covering Workplace Mental Health fellow and a 2020-2021 Poynter-Koch Media & Journalism fellow.\u00a0 Healthcare Systems of America\u2019s website still lists Michael \u201cMike\u201d Sarian as chair and CEO. Screenshot of HSA\u2019s website <\/p>\n
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