State launches website, call center for Steward patients after bankruptcy declaration

Massachusetts has launched a website to provide updates about hospitals operated by Steward Health Care after the company announced Monday it is filing for bankruptcy protection. 

Steward Health Care, which operates eight hospitals in Massachusetts, announced early Monday that despite its financial crisis, its hospitals, medical centers, and physician’s offices will remain open. 

In addition to the website, the state also launched a call center dedicated to questions from patients and employees at hospitals operated by Steward Health Care.

The announcement comes after the state announced Friday that it had activated an emergency operations plan in response to Steward’s financial struggles. 

Healey says there may be “disruptions,” “inconveniences”

The state’s newly-launched website says that “Nothing will change immediately” for patients and that all Steward facilities in the state are open and seeing patients. 

But at a press conference Monday, Governor Maura Healey said there could be “disruptions or inconveniences” to care, according to The Boston Globe.

The state’s website says in its employee section that the state is “working closely” with Steward and unions to keep jobs in place. Everyone currently employed by Steward will continue to be paid for every hour worked, according to the website. 

“Commonwealth representatives will be in Court to advocate for our local interests,” the website reads. “We have been closely monitoring the situation at Steward hospitals for months with the goal of preserving patient safety, protecting jobs, and ensuring access to health care across Massachusetts.”

Healey said in a post on X that the bankruptcy filing “is a step toward our goal of getting Steward out of Massachusetts.”

Steward CEO Ralph de la Torre said the move will position the company, which operates more than 30 hospitals across the nation, to “transition ownership of its Massachusetts-based hospitals.”

Legislators condemn company for mismanagement

Several legislators, including Rep. Ayanna Pressley, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, and Sen. Ed Markey, said the bankruptcy was due to irresponsible management and prioritization of profits by Steward. 

“Steward CEO Dr. Ralph de la Torre and his private equity allies put the Massachusetts health care system at risk when they made reckless decisions that put investor profit over people’s lives and livelihoods, ultimately leading to this bankruptcy,” Markey said in a statement, adding that de la Torre and related entities would be “remembered not for improving access to care or saving the non-profit hospitals they purchased, but for their unforgivable abdication of responsibility to the people they promised to serve.”

“Next step should be to seriously reexamine if we should allow private equity in health care,” Warren wrote in a post on X. “Steward is the latest example of a private equity endangering communities.”

Steward was started in 2010 to acquire a struggling group of hospitals. But just a few years later, it was already facing its own financial problems and taking on debt.

Several hospitals the company operates serve patients from demographics that are already marginalized and vulnerable, raising concerns about how Steward’s financial ails will impact accessibility of care.

“This is a public health crisis for our communities — especially for the vulnerable patients who receive their care at Carney Hospital and St. Elizabeth’s in Dorchester—and we must do everything we can to keep Steward hospitals open and care accessible,” Pressley said in a statement.

The company has also faced criticism for expanding outside of Massachusetts instead of focusing on improving its hospitals within the state, which have struggled with staff shortages and timely care. 

“Despite the overwhelming evidence demonstrating corporate greed’s role in this bankruptcy, Steward, Cerberus, and Medical Properties Trust will do everything in their power to escape blame and accountability, as will other private equity firms running the same game of greed and mismanagement at hospitals across the United States,” Markey said.