A U.S. Senate Committee voted Thursday to investigate the circumstances around Steward Health Care’s bankruptcy and to issue a subpoena compelling the head of the company to testify.
Dr. Ralph de la Torre, CEO of the for-profit hospital chain, did not appear at an April hearing of the Senate’s Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions that Sens. Ed Markey and Elizabeth Warren held in Boston. The next month, Steward filed for bankruptcy, creating more uncertainty around the future of its hospitals, including eight in Massachusetts.
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, the committee’s chair, said that while Steward hospitals were struggling, de la Torre “has been doing extraordinarily well financially,” mentioning the CEO’s $40 million yacht and a $15 million fishing boat. He said the committee repeatedly invited de la Torre to testify.
“And time and time and time again, he has arrogantly refused,” Sanders said. “Well, today we are saying enough is enough. It is time for Dr. de la Torre to get off of his yacht and to explain to Congress the financial chicanery which made him extremely wealthy, while the hospitals he managed went bankrupt.”
It’s the first time the HELP Committee has issued a subpoena to compel testimony, said Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy, the panel’s ranking minority member. The subpoena calls for de la Torre to appear at a Sept. 12 hearing titled “Examining the Bankruptcy of Steward Health Care: How Management Decisions Have Impacted Patient Care.”
“All I can say to Dr. de la Torre is you cannot treat communities as expendable,” Markey said. “You are accountable. Your day of reckoning is going to arrive here on September 12th.”
In a statement, Steward Health Care officials said the company “will address the subpoena with the appropriate HELP Committee staff.”
“We understand the desire for increased transparency around our journey and path forward,” the statement said.
The statement noted that the bankruptcy process is public and involves monitoring from various state regulators and other agencies, and said that patient care ombudsmen “have issued reports concluding that all Steward hospitals are safe for patient care.”
State House Speaker Ron Mariano, a Quincy Democrat, was skeptical earlier this week that de la Torre would comply with the subpoena. Mariano’s dealings with de la Torre date back to 2014, when Steward closed Quincy Hospital — or, as Mariano put it Wednesday, when “he ran my hospital into the ground.”
“I don’t think they’re going to get much luck getting Ralph to show up. I think that he’s got other pressing issues he’s got to attend to. He’s got to get over to Malta, because that’s where it looks like he’s got some big trouble,” Mariano said, referencing accusations leveled by the Maltese government and a reported U.S. Justice Department probe.
As part of the bankruptcy proceedings, Steward has put its Massachusetts hospitals — St. Elizabeth’s in Brighton, Carney Hospital in Dorchester, Good Samaritan Medical Center in Brockton, Holy Family Hospital in Methuen and Haverhill, Morton Hospital in Taunton, Nashoba Valley Medical Center in Ayer and St. Anne’s Hospital in Fall River — up for sale. Gov. Maura Healey said Tuesday that all the hospitals received bids by last week’s deadline and officials are evaluating those offers.
