NATCHEZ — Angered that lawyers working for bankrupt Natchez Regional Medical Center were paid ahead of other creditors and employee benefits, Adams County Supervisors apparently demanded a slight refund.

Natchez bankruptcy attorney Jack Lazarus said supervisors became “incensed” many weeks ago after learning that several large payments — totaling more than $420,000 — were paid on the eve of the hospital’s bankruptcy filing on March 26.

Bankruptcy records indicate those paid included hospital board attorney Walter Brown, hospital sales consultant Healthcare Management Partners, the Horne Group CPAs, and bankruptcy attorneys Eileen Shaffer and Butler Snow.

The supervisors were so upset that they apparently demanded Walter Brown and Butler Snow repay a portion of their fees.

A schedule of professional fees filed with the bankruptcy court Thursday indicates Natchez Regional’s attorneys and advisors will have billed the hospital more than $1.3 million since the March filing.

That figure includes a “voluntary fee reduction by Butler Snow and Walter Brown” in the amount of $30,000, presumably made through a deal with the supervisors and the unsecured creditors committee counsel.

Brown also waived his fee for his involvement in reviewing the documents related to a $3 million loan Adams County borrowed to allow the hospital sale to work.

“All of those (fees) will come under the scrutiny of the bankruptcy court,” Lazarus said, adding that the judge could reduce the fees allowed if he chose to do so.

The $1.3 million in fees charged to the hospital doesn’t include payments made prior to the filing including more than $580,000 paid to Healthcare Management Partners, the Philadelphia-based consulting group led by Scott Phillips. HMP was paid prior to the bankruptcy to facilitate the sale of the hospital. It also doesn’t include a $123,000 payment to Brown two days prior to the bankruptcy filing.

Attempts to reach Brown for a comment were unsuccessful.

Phillips defended the payments to his firm last week by email.

“Payment of the professionals was not a ‘backroom’ deal,” he wrote. “Rather it was routine housekeeping by an organization about to file for bankruptcy. To report otherwise is both sensational and inaccurate under the circumstances.”

Other fees related to the bankruptcy will top $755,000, Thursday’s court filing shows, will go to pay for attorneys for the unsecured creditors committee, attorneys and accountants involved in paying off the hospital’s $14 million bond with the Mississippi Development Bank and attorneys working on Adams County’s $3 million loan to cover costs required to complete the hospital’s sale.

Earlier this month Community Health Systems agreed to purchase Natchez Regional for $10 million in cash and $8 million in prepaid property tax.

Lazarus said the hospital’s bankruptcy is an extremely costly affair that needs to end soon to avoid more and more fees.

“I think it’s absolutely crazy,” Lazarus said. “This whole circus is too expensive.”