Senators slam Steward Health Care CEO, plan contempt vote

U.S. Senators on Thursday called Steward Health Care’s CEO the poster child for corporate greed in health care and vowed to vote next week to hold him in civil and criminal contempt.

Members of the Senate's Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions issued a subpoena for Ralph de la Torre to testify at a public hearing in Washington, D.C. on Thursday, but the CEO declined to do so.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont who chairs the committee, slammed de la Torre for amassing personal wealth at the expense of patients and for failing to answer to Congress for his actions.

De la Torre, a former heart surgeon, has led Steward since its founding in 2010, when a private equity firm took over a group of Massachusetts hospitals from the Archdiocese of Boston. The company later expanded to operate more than 30 hospitals in eight states, and in countries including Colombia and Malta.

“How many of Steward’s hospitals could have been prevented from closing down, how many lives could have been saved, how many health care workers would still have their jobs today if de la Torre spent $160 million on high-quality health care at the hospitals he managed instead of a yacht, two private jets, a luxury fishing boat and a huge contribution to a wealthy prep school?” Sanders asked.

Two nurses from Steward hospitals in Massachusetts told senators on the committee that corporate managers cut staffing to dangerous levels and failed to provide adequate medical supplies, putting patients in harm.

Ellen MacInnis, a nurse in the emergency department at St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center in Boston, said nurses sometimes spent their own money on diapers, infant formula and food for patients in need because Steward didn't keep enough basic supplies in stock.

The company failed to pay numerous vendors and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in May, with some $9 billion in debt.

“The moral injury that occurs when you're unable to do the one and only thing you want to do — and that's to keep patients safe — but for the greed of Steward and the way they deliberately deprive me of my colleagues, my support system, my supplies, my equipment. I'm just worn out,” MacInnis said. She is a board member of the Massachusetts Nurses Association.

Audra Sprague, another union nurse who worked at Nashoba Valley Medical Center in Ayer until its closure on Aug. 31, recalled bringing her diabetic teenage son to the hospital with a life-threatening complication and finding only two nurses in the ER to care for 18 patients.

“To ensure that my son received the critical time-sensitive care he needed, I had to be his nurse that night, and not his mother,” Sprague said. “And he deserved to have both.”

Sen. Ed Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat and frequent critic of for-profit health care, told the nurses: “You are brave, and Dr. de la Torre is a coward. He would not come here to allow you to confront him with the reality of what he has left as his legacy at these hospitals.”

Senators also heard from public officials in Louisiana, where Steward operates Glenwood Regional Medical Center, a hospital that was deemed to be putting patients in immediate jeopardy, according to regulators in that state.

Louisiana state Rep. Michael Echols called Steward executives “health care terrorists.”

“They are killing our patients, they are killing our communities and they need to be held accountable,” Echols testified.

A Steward spokesperson said the company had no comment on the hearing.

A spokesperson for De la Torre maintained that it would be inappropriate for him to testify while Steward’s bankruptcy continues and said senators should reschedule their hearing.

“The Committee continues to ignore the fact that there is an ongoing settlement effort underway with all interested parties that paves the way to keep all of Steward's remaining hospitals open and preserve jobs,” said the spokesperson, Rebecca Kral. “Dr. de la Torre cannot testify or otherwise publicly comment so as not to interfere with this process.”

Senators scheduled committee votes for Sept. 19 to enforce their subpoena and potentially hold de la Torre in criminal contempt.

If the committee approves the resolutions, they will go to the full Senate for a vote. A criminal contempt finding would allow the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia to criminally prosecute de la Torre, senators said.

Senators were bipartisan in their condemnation of de la Torre and Steward.

“We need to keep this from happening again,” said Sen. Bill Cassidy, Republican of Louisiana.

Sen. Mitt Romeny of Utah said the events that took place under de la Torre’s leadership are “reprehensible and never should have happened.” Steward previously operated several hospitals in Utah.

“They understaffed health care facilities,” said Romney, a Republican and a former governor of Massachusetts. “They didn’t pay for required medical equipment. They failed to meet minimum operating standards … And most importantly, they endangered lives.”

In Massachusetts, Steward has shuttered two of its hospitals, Nashoba Valley in Ayer, and Carney Hospital in Dorchester. The company is selling five other hospitals to new operators. The sales are scheduled to be completed by Oct. 1.