Steward Health Care CEO Ralph de la Torre has for years avoided a public response to allegations that he profited at the expense of patients at dozens of community hospitals across the country owned by the Dallas-based company. Now, he must face those questions on Capitol Hill after a bipartisan group of senators voted Thursday to launch an investigation into Steward and issue subpoenas to the closeted chief executive.
De la Torre, who one member of parliament called the “poster child” for corporate greed in health care, was ordered to testify in a public hearing on September 12 before the Senate Committee on Healthcare, Education, Labor and Pensions.
“It is time for Dr. de la Torre to get off this yacht and explain the financial chicanery,” Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont, spoke before the vote.
“This is a story of private enterprise without obstacles taking over a massive hospital system and looting for its wealth,” said Sen. Edward Markey, Democrat of Massachusetts. “All I can say to Ralph de la Torre is that you cannot assume a community can be thrown away. You are responsible, your day of reckoning will come.”
A spokesman for Steward did not immediately respond for comment. Reached by phone on Wednesday before the vote, the spokeswoman declined to say whether de la Torre would voluntarily testify.
“Steward Health Care has done everything in its power to succeed in a very challenging health care environment,” de la Torre said in a company statement. filed for bankruptcy reorganization in May. The company is currently exploring plans to sell the entire hospital.
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The Senate investigation is the latest effort to hold de la Torre and his company responsible for managing dozens of community hospitals across the country. Earlier this month, CBS News first reported that federal prosecutors with the US Attorney’s office in Boston investigating Steward Health Care over allegations that include fraud and violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
Steward has also focused on CBS News’ investigation lasted nearly two years documenting how private equity and other investor groups siphoned hundreds of millions of dollars from community hospitals with devastating public health consequences.
Filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission from 2021 show Steward’s owners paid out millions in dividends. At the same time, de la Torre acquired a 190-foot yacht estimated to be worth $40 million.
Meanwhile, CBS News reviewed records that show how Steward hospitals across the country are left with unpaid bills, and are also at risk of running out of life-saving supplies. In Massachusetts, essential medical devices that can save a woman’s life allegedly recalled by the manufacturer because the company did not pay its bills.
“They have taken money from this hospital that provides the care they need and they are using that money to line their own pockets.” Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey told CBS News in February. “I’m disgusted. Selfish, greedy.”
The CBS News series also examines how Steward’s decision to selling the San Antonio hospital land and building is critical may have contributed to the closure of the facility.
The company previously told CBS News that executives always put patients first and said they “deny that any other consideration comes before these guiding principles.” A spokesman for the company said Steward “has actively and meaningfully invested” in hospital systems since its formation, including in Massachusetts, where it took over hospitals that were “failing” and “will be closed.”
A monitor appointed by the judge to oversee the bankruptcy of the company recently examined Steward hospitals in four states. The findings, filed in court on Tuesday, included broken medical equipment, broken elevators, and staff challenges, but determined there was no immediate risk to patient safety.
In addition to the bipartisan effort to investigate Steward, a pair of Democratic lawmakers, Sen. Markey and Rep. Pramila Jayapal, of Washington state, on Thursday introduced a bill aimed at regulating the type of financial transactions that de la Torre and his private business partners. involved in the legislation they recently passed the Massachusetts state senate.
Markey called the Steward crisis a “symptom” of a health care system that prioritizes corporate interests over patient safety.
“Private equity firms and greedy corporate executives are using the health care system as a piggybank,” the senator said, calling for “permanent oversight to protect patients, providers, and communities.”
