Why Mass. is seizing one formerly Steward-owned hospital — but not two others

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The governor is temporarily taking over a hospital to keep it open. Why not two others?

Gov. Maura Healey made a remarkable announcement Friday afternoon: The state is seizing a hospital.

As part of a larger deal to keep open five of the seven Massachusetts hospitals owned by bankrupt Steward Health Care, the Healey administration plans to take over St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center in Brighton and hand it off to Boston Medical Center. Healey is using the power of eminent domain to take private property for public use. It’s allowed as long as the owner is paid market value  — in this case, Healey's offering $4.5 million (but it could be contested in court).

“It’s one of those things I can do,” Healey told reporters.

So, why isn’t she doing it for the two Steward-owned hospitals slated to close?

Friday’s news offered no new hope for Carney Hospital in Dorchester or Nashoba Valley Medical Center in Ayer. Both hospitals — which together employ about 1,250 people and treated 23,000 patients in their emergency rooms last year — remain on track to shut down by Aug. 31.

Some patients, staff and local elected officials had been calling on Healey to use eminent domain to keep Carney and Nashoba open. However, unlike St. Elizabeth’s (or the four other hospitals Steward has tentatively agreed to sell) Healey says no one has stepped up to run them long term.

That includes the state itself. While Healey’s team is putting up a few million dollars to claw St. Elizabeth’s from Steward and the Apollo Global investors that control its property, she said last week on Radio Boston the state can’t be on the hook indefinitely for staff salaries, supplies and all the costs of running a hospital.

“Somebody has to pay to continue to operate these hospitals,” Healey said, later adding, “the state has already contributed a lot.”

As our colleague Priyanka Dayal McCluskey reported, Massachusetts plans to set aside $80 million a year in state and federal matching funds to help the new hospital operators for the first three years. That’s in addition to the $30 million in advance Medicaid payments to keep all five hospitals open through the end of the month.

Healey calls her proposal “a win” because the state is keeping five hospitals open and getting rid of “a really bad operator.” (If you sense some bitterness here, recall Healey warned about the potential risks of Steward as an owner almost a decade ago, when she was attorney general.) But it doesn’t feel like a victory to the communities that rely on Carney and Nashoba. Advocates still hope Healey will deliver a Hail Mary.

“The news today is good,” Healey said Friday. “But not for everyone.”