Steward inks deal for St. Elizabeth's and Good Samaritan medical centers

Steward Health Care, the national for-profit hospital chain whose bankruptcy kicked off months of anxiety about the future of Massachusetts' health care industry, has reached an agreement to sell Good Samaritan Medical Center in Brockton and transfer the operations of St. Elizabeth's Medical Center to Boston Medical Center.

In court documents filed on Friday evening, Steward said the sale price was $140 million.

The agreement for a new operator at both facilities brings the future of Steward's Massachusetts hospitals significantly closer to being settled. Just days earlier, Steward revealed deals to sell three other hospitals in the state.

St. Elizabeth's is the largest hospital in the Steward system, and its sale has been mired in a dispute over the hospital property. In a statement, Gov. Maura Healey cautioned that the deal does not resolve the disagreement over the hospital's real estate, which is controlled by outside investors.

"We’ll continue to press ahead with our plans to take St. Elizabeth’s by eminent domain to keep that hospital open,” Gov. Maura Healey said in a statement released Friday evening.

Healey previously said her administration would seize St. Elizabeth’s by eminent domain because the property owner refused to negotiate a fair price. She offered to pay $4.5 million for the property. But Apollo Global Management, the firm that controls the real estate, rejected that offer, noting the property is assessed at over $200 million. Apollo threatened to “vigorously challenge” the eminent domain proceeding in court.

The dispute suggests the ultimate sale price could be different from what Steward listed in its filing with the bankruptcy court.

Boston Medical Center's chief executive, Alastair Bell, thanked the Healey Administration for "averting a public health crisis," and said the integration of Good Samaritan "aligns with our mission of ensuring high quality and equitable access to care while also providing vital health services for these communities.”

He said his staff's focus will now shift to "finalizing the transaction, integration planning and efforts to support the workforce and community."

On Thursday, Steward revealed the Lifespan health system of Rhode Island has signed an agreement to buy St. Anne's Hospital in Fall River and Morton Hospital in Taunton for $175 million. And Lawrence General Hospital has agreed to take over Holy Family Hospital, which has campuses in Methuen and Haverhill, for $28 million.

However, two other hospitals, Carney Hospital in Dorchester and Nashoba Valley Medical Center in Ayer, are set to shutter permanently on Saturday morning.

According to court documents, Boston Medical Center will receive state funding and take on debt to finance the purchase of the two Steward Hospitals. It was not immediately clear how much state assistance would be part of the deal.

Boston Medical Center is a nonprofit, safety-net hospital with more than 500 beds and an emergency department. It is also a teaching hospital affiliated with Boston University's Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine.

All of the hospital sales still have to be approved by a bankruptcy judge, and reviewed by state and federal regulators. The parties are scheduled to appear for a sales hearing before the bankruptcy judge on Wednesday in Houston.