New court filings hint that negotiations for three valley hospitals are headed in a good direction. 

In a federal court filing dated Monday, Sept. 2, Steward Healthcare has asked for a 90 day extension to find new owners. 

Previously, Steward was hard set on the Sept. 3 date to sell its three valley hospitals. They threatened to close the hospitals if they didn't sell or receive more money from outside parties to stay open. 

That changed when Medical Properties Trust agreed to lift the financial burden off of Steward while they negotiated with buyers. 

“The extensions are good news,” Moe Tkacik, an investigative journalist who has extensively followed the Steward bankruptcy saga, said. “They are good news for those hospitals because they can live to see another day.”

Under the new filing, Steward and MPT have until Dec. 2 to sell Trumbull Regional, Hillside Rehabilitation and Sharon Regional. 

But Tkacik said it might not be as easy of a deal. 

“Medical Properties Trust is going to try and pull some fast ones … they're going to want 10 million dollars a year in rent and your community can't afford to pay that,” she said. 

The groups that are bargaining with Steward and MPT are Western Reserve Health Education for Trumbull Regional and Meadville Medical for Sharon Regional. 

Steward and WRHE were supposed to speak in federal court on Tuesday Sept. 3 for the latest hearing in their pending sale. WRHE was expected to object to the closure of Trumbull Regional and ask for more time to submit a formal bid but the hearing was canceled.

Both points became unnecessary to bring in front of a judge because of an agreement between Steward and MPT. Since MPT will assume all operating costs, Steward is no longer threatening closures and Monday's filing pushed back the sale deadline, which WRHE wanted all along. 

If a deal can't be reached before Dec. 2 to sell the hospitals the court could extend the deadline even further if Steward requests it.

Monday's full court filing can be found here: