2 weeks Ago
Gov. Maura Healey, administration officials and officials from the Massachusetts Department of Health helped create conditions to facilitate the transfer of six of Steward Health Care’s hospitals being processed as a part of a Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceeding with owners and executives. U.
S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez has presided over the process in which 31 Steward hospitals around the country will be transferred to help settle $9 billion in accumulated debts by owners and executives. Eight of these hospitals are located in Massachusetts, including Holy Family Hospitals in Methuen and Haverhill.
Lawrence Hospital has agreed to acquire the hospitals for $28 million. Though the governor has been critical of Steward’s management for a host of ills citing greed and mismanagement for driving the financial collapse. However, she pragmatically helped facilitate the transfers of hospitals to new owners with a $30 million infusion of funds as an advance in lieu of Medicaid payments, for capital support and to maximize federal matching.
Thankfully, this has not only led to the transfer of all but two hospitals in Massachusetts, but it has supported keeping the doors open to two vital hospitals in the Merrimack Valley. Unfortunately, two hospitals – Carney Hospital in Dorchester and Nashoba Valley Medical Center – have been shuttered. State leaders recently initiated legislation to bolster controls and oversight of hospital systems to prevent the near disaster that Massachusetts residents were facing.
Exceptional leadership was not only exhibited by state officials, but also local mayors and councilors in Methuen and Haverhill, who called for better oversight and accountability. Though these government officials were not able to directly facilitate the transfers, or cause favorable bankruptcy proceedings, they advocated for staff and patients in concert with state officials. At the U.
S. legislative level, Congresswoman Lori Trahan, D-Westford, called for an expansion of a Boston U.S.
Attorney probe into alleged fraud and violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. She specifically cited investigations to focus on potential “domestic crimes” and harms committed against the public by Steward’s executives and CEO Ralph de la Torre. Sadly, not all leaders have been helpful or enlightened.
Massachusetts Sens. Edward Markey and Elizabeth Warren have devolved into personalized attacks of de la Torre that placed bankruptcy proceedings at risk. Earlier this summer, they held “ hearings” with de la Torre in absentia, utilizing theatrical tactics such as displaying an empty chair where the subject of their inquiry was supposed to sit.
At a congressional oversight committee meeting Sept. 12 Markey said de la Torre “..
.is a fugitive on the run.” “He is using his blood-soaked gains to hide behind corporate lawyers, instead of responding to the committee’s demand for answers about how he could unleash such cruelty on the communities that he promised to serve,” he said.
With this rhetoric, no wonder de la Torre was advised by his legal counsel to skip the proceedings despite the risk of being held in contempt by Congress. Markey has simply reached for headlines while the practical leaders grappling with the genuine problems that affected hundreds of thousands of Massachusetts residents quietly took actions that saved six out of eight hospitals from being shuttered. One would ask, in light of the U.
S. Justice Department investigation underway, a U.S.
Attorney office probe, and a very delicate and complex bankruptcy and ownership transfer in progress, why would Markey engage in interference? Perhaps the senator should answer these questions openly to his constituents. Joe D’Amore writes from Groveland. Reach him at damorecos@gmail.
com ..
