Steward Health Care CEO Ralph de la Torre has for years avoided publicly addressing accusations that he profited at the expense of patients at the Dallas-based company’s dozens of community hospitals nationwide. Now he will face those questions on Capitol Hill after a bipartisan group of senators voted Thursday to launch an investigation into Steward and issued a subpoena for its reclusive chief executive.
De la Torre, whom one lawmaker called the “golden child” of corporate greed in health care, was subpoenaed to testify at a public hearing Sept. 12 before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.
“It’s time for Dr. de la Torre to get off that yacht and explain his financial shenanigans,” Vermont Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders said before the vote.
“This is a story about a private equity firm that, with no constraints, took over a massive hospital system and ransacked it for profit,” said Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Edward Markey. “All I can say to Ralph de la Torre is don’t treat communities like they’re superfluous. You’re responsible, and your day of reckoning is coming.”
A spokesman for Steward did not immediately respond to questions from reporters. Reached by phone Wednesday before the vote, the spokesman declined to say whether de la Torre would voluntarily agree to testify.
“Steward Health Care has done everything in its power to operate successfully in an extremely challenging health care environment,” de la Torre said in a company statement at the meeting. filed for receivership in MayThe company is currently exploring the possibility of selling all of its hospitals.
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The Senate investigation is the latest attempt to hold de la Torre and his company accountable for their management of dozens of community hospitals across the country. Earlier this month, CBS News was first to report that federal prosecutors The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Boston is investigating Steward Health Care on allegations that include fraud and violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
Steward was also the center of attention A CBS News investigation spanning nearly two years documenting how private equity funds and other investor groups siphoned hundreds of millions of dollars from community hospitals, with devastating consequences for public health.
A 2021 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission shows that Steward’s owners paid themselves millions of dollars in dividends. Around the same time, de la Torre acquired a 190-foot yacht valued at $40 million.
Meanwhile, CBS News has reviewed documents showing how Steward hospitals across the country left a trail of unpaid bills, sometimes risking shortages of potentially life-saving supplies. In Massachusetts, a crucial medical device It could have saved a woman’s life was allegedly taken back by the manufacturer because the company had not paid its bills.
“They’ve taken money from hospitals that provide necessary care and they’re using it to line their own pockets,” Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey told CBS News in February. “I’m disgusted. It’s selfish. It’s greed.”
The CBS News series also examined how Steward’s decision to Sell Land and Buildings of Critical San Antonio Hospital may have contributed to the closure of this facility.
The company previously told CBS News that its leaders always put patients first and that they “deny that other considerations were placed ahead of this guiding principle.” The company spokesperson said Steward “has actively and significantly invested” in its hospital system since its inception, including in Massachusetts, where it took over hospitals that were “bankrupt” and “on the verge of closing.”
A judge-appointed monitor overseeing the company’s bankruptcy recently inspected Steward hospitals in four states. His findings, filed with the court Tuesday, included faulty medical equipment, broken elevators and staffing problems but determined there were no immediate risks to patient safety.
In addition to bipartisan efforts to investigate Steward, two Democratic lawmakers, Sen. Markey and Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington state, introduced a bill Thursday aimed at regulating the types of financial transactions that de la Torre and his private equity partners engaged in. Similar legislation recently passed the Massachusetts state Senate.
Markey called the Steward crisis a “symptom” of a health care system that prioritizes corporate interests over patient safety.
“Private equity firms and greedy corporate executives are using the health care system as a piggy bank,” the senator said, calling for “permanent safeguards to protect patients, providers and communities.”
