Sen. Markey to hold hearing next month on Steward Health Care financial crisis

Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey will hold a hearing next month to investigate Steward Health Care’s ongoing financial crisis, describing the situation as a “financial Ponzi scheme.”

Markey announced he will chair a Senate subcommittee hearing April 3 in Boston to examine the role of for-profit companies in the health care system. The Democrat said he would call on Steward’s CEO to explain the company’s dire financial situation after receiving $675 million in federal COVID-19 relief money.

“Steward got here because the company executives filled their wallets while hollowing out the healthcare system,” Markey said. “They took taxpayer dollars to float on their yachts, all while their hospitals drowned.”

Steward operates nine healthcare facilities across Massachusetts, including Good Samaritan in Brockton. The company said it does not have the money to keep the facilities open and wants out of the Massachusetts Health Care Market. The company employs around 16,000 Massachusetts workers.

“For-profit companies like Steward shamelessly profit off the backs of health care providers while making it harder for people to get the care they need,” Markey said. “For-profit companies, including private equity, put our hospitals on life support to turn a profit—all while forcing communities to clean up the mess they leave behind.”

Gov. Maura Healey ripped into the financially embattled Steward Health Care system Monday, saying the company’s financial woes are of its own making and added that the state is still working toward what she called an orderly transition away from the company.

“It frankly disgusts me,” Healey said Monday, “in terms of how [Steward’s CEO] ran operations and put patients and providers and our communities at risk.”

Healey said state monitors are on the ground keeping an eye on the nine health care facilities operated by the company, including hospitals in some of the state’s poorer communities.

“This is a problem that the Commonwealth of Massachusetts did not create,” she said. “One individual and one management team at Steward created this mess and it has put a lot of people at risk, caused a lot of understandable concern and makes a lot of us really, really angry.”

A spokesperson for Steward said the company has provided state officials with audited financial statements through 2021 but does not have audited statements yet for 2022, and will turn them over as soon as they are completed.

Late Friday night, a Steward spokesperson provided the following statement to Boston 25 but did not specifically comment on Markey’s hearing.

“We continue to work with public officials to transition our hospitals to other ownership; in the meantime, our hospitals are open 24/7 and we are a critical resource to many in the Commonwealth.”

“The solution must be found but first we have to put a spotlight on the problem,” Markey said.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.

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