A sales hearing scheduled to discuss the fate of several Steward Health Care properties in the Massachusetts will be delayed — again — according to court filings.
Steward, which has been navigating its way through Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings since May, said in an overnight filing that a hearing originally scheduled for Tuesday will instead take place on Friday. The company gave no explanation for the delay.
“Sale Hearing for Stewardship Health and the Debtors’ Hospitals in Arkansas, Louisiana, and Massachusetts, previously scheduled for August 13, 2024 at 1:00 p.m. (Central Time), is hereby adjourned to August 16, 2024 at 10:00 a.m. (Central Time),” Steward’s attorneys wrote in court filings.
This is the fourth sale hearing postponement sought by Steward since the company filed for Chapter 11 protections. Steward is selling its hospitals in an attempt to meet its debt obligations, but its lawyers have told U.S. bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez that keeping them open and transferring them to new owners is the end goal, necessitating the sale hearings.
After an auction in July, the company told the judge six of its Commonwealth hospitals — Good Samaritan Medical Center in Brockton, Holy Family Hospitals in Haverhill and Methuen, Morton Hospital in Taunton, Saint Anne’s Hospital in Fall River, and St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center in Brighton — had received so calld “qualified” bids. Carney Hospital, in Boston’s Dorchester neighborhood, and Nashoba Valley Medical Center, in Ayer, had not and instead would be shut down by around the end of August.
Lopez approved the company’s plan to shutter those facilities, noting it had the authority and did not have the capital to continue operations.
On Friday, state Sen. Barry Finegold said that Steward’s hospital in Haverhill might also close, while its sister facility in Methuen stays open.
“I am hearing that Haverhill is not going to be part of the bid, which to me is concerning,” he told the State House News Service. “I understand that the bid is going to be just for Methuen and not for Haverhill. I wanted a regional approach — we are all in this together.”
The news comes as lawmakers and advocates are getting more and more fed up with the entire Steward debacle and the potential for hospital closures.
The 1199SEIU representing Merrimack Valley healthcare workers on Monday blasted the Steward and the hospital’s property-owner landlord for the reported breakdown in talks surrounding the Haverhill facility.
“The fact that Apollo, Medical Properties Trust (MPT) and Steward Health Care would continue this sick game of financial brinksmanship, in an effort to squeeze every last dollar from hospitals that Steward and its financial backers have already wrung dry, is unconscionable,” said Filaine Deronnette, the union’s vice president at-large.
Last week, Gov. Maura Healey indicated she would like to see the company’s CEO, Dr. Ralph de la Torre, become the subject of a federal investigation, noting a recent trip by the Steward doctor to the Paris Olympics.
“He basically stole millions out of Steward on the backs of workers and patients and bought himself fancy yachts, mansions and now apparently lavish trips to Versailles. I hope he gets his just due and that federal investigators will come after him for his actions. Our administration is working night and day to protect jobs, protect patients, and pick up the pieces of the situation that Ralph De La Torre has put us in,” Healey said in a statement.
State Sen. Nick Collins, who represents many of the Boston residents who will be impacted by Carney’s closure, said it’s time for lawmakers to stop pointing fingers and do something about the public health problem brewing in the Bay State.
“With the news of the Holy Family deal on life support, it is time for state health officials to admit what we all know: since the passage of health care reform in 2006, the Commonwealth is ‘the market.’ Our state health officials can’t just blame Steward anymore. The State has the power and money to save and stabilize all our community hospitals,” he said in a statement.
“We are already in, what medical professionals categorize, as an acute care crisis. Allowing community hospitals to be closed amidst this crisis would deprive vulnerable residents of their access to health care and particularly emergency care and that is simply unsafe,” Collins said.
A hearing held by the by the Department of Public Health to discuss the planned closure of Carney Hospital is scheduled for Tuesday evening at Florian Hall, in Boston. Deronnette, said many of her Steward-employed members and their supporters will be there to air their frustrations.
“The Massachusetts healthcare system is on the brink of collapse and action is needed now. We call upon the Healey administration and the state legislature to do what is necessary for patients, caregivers, the patients, and the communities they serve by taking action to ensure the transfer of all six hospitals, including Holy Family Hospital in Haverhill, to new ownership. Inaction puts lives at risk and Massachusetts residents deserve better,” she said in a statement.
It is unclear how Steward’s delay will affect the Commonwealth’s plan to advance them $30 million in MassHealth related payments. The first set of payments was due to go out last week, the remaining about $18 million at the end of this week. Both were contingent on Steward demonstrating they had successfully sold their Bay State Hospitals. The Healey Administration did not return a request for comment on the matter.
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