Senator: Resignation of Steward Health CEO 'not enough'

A U.S. Senator who has been an outspoken critic of Steward Health Care says the announced resignation of the bankrupt company’s CEO.

Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), chair of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Subcommittee on Primary Health and Retirement reacted to Saturday’s announcement that Dr. Ralph de la Torre will resign as board chairman and CEO effective October 1, 2024.

On September 25, the U.S. Senate voted unanimously to refer de la Torre for criminal contempt of Congress for failing to respond to a subpoena issued by the Senate HELP committee, a step taken by the Senate for the first time in more than 50 years.

Senator Markey said in a news release that de la Torre must be held accountable in court.

“This resignation comes too late for the workers, patients, and communities that Mr. de Torre harmed and abandoned,” said Senator Markey. “He has extracted hundreds of millions from emergency departments, operating rooms, and intensive care units to buy luxury property, expensive vacations, and yachts, all while patients suffered and died and workers and hospitals went unresourced.”

Markey criticizes Steward’s senior leadership and board of directors, Cerberus Capital Management, and landlord Medical Properties Trust, arguing that investors in hospitals across the country “must understand that their profit-only gains cannot continue.”

Steward once operated 31 hospitals nationwide including Trumbull Regional Medical Center in Warren, Hillside Rehabilitation Hospital in Howland, and Sharon Regional Medical Center in Mercer County.

Insight Health Systems took over operations of Trumbull Regional and Hillside Hospital in mid-September.

Pennsylvania’s Attorney General revealed a $4.5 million commitment earlier this month to keep Steward Health from closing Sharon Regional Medical Center over the next three months while a new owner is sought.