Dietrich North
NEW YORK (Reuters) – A U.S. Senate committee on Thursday launched an investigation into the chapter of personal hospital community Steward Well being and voted to pressure the corporate’s chief govt to testify at a public listening to in September.
Steward filed for Chapter 11 safety in Might and is at present making an attempt to promote its 31 bankrupt hospitals.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, the chairman of the Well being, Training, Labor and Pensions Committee, mentioned Thursday in issuing the subpoena that Dr. Ralph de la Torre, the proprietor and CEO of Steward, was reducing spending on the firm. Made “big quantities of cash.”
“Maybe greater than anybody else in America, Sanders exemplifies the appalling company greed that permeates our for-profit well being care system,” Sanders mentioned.
De Torre bought a $40 million yacht, a $15 million fishing boat and two enterprise jets whereas hospitals underneath his watch closed, costing lots of of jobs and eradicating entry to medical care in rural areas alternatives are diminished, Sanders mentioned.
De La Torre couldn’t instantly be reached for remark. Stewart didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
The committee voted 20-1 to subpoena de la Torre after de la Torre beforehand declined an invite to testify about Stewart’s downfall.
The committee intends to inquire concerning the dangers to U.S. sufferers and Steward’s ill-fated growth into Malta, which prompted a U.S. Division of Justice investigation into attainable violations of the U.S. Overseas Corrupt Practices Act.
Stewart was awarded a contract to run a public hospital within the Mediterranean nation, however Maltese prosecutors have leveled bribery and corruption expenses in opposition to the privatization effort.
Invoice Cassidy, the committee’s high Republican, mentioned the committee has by no means issued a subpoena to compel witnesses to testify, and the transfer was not taken frivolously.
“Sufferers’ lives are in danger,” Cassidy mentioned. “Individuals deserve solutions.”
In an instance of mismanagement that Cassidy known as “egregious,” he mentioned a Massachusetts lady died after giving start as a result of docs realized mid-surgery that the quantity wanted to deal with her could be an excessive amount of due to Stewart’s monetary difficulties. The provides have been recovered.
Sanders additionally blamed Stewart’s former personal fairness proprietor Cerberus Capital Administration for the corporate’s downfall, saying the personal fairness proprietor saddled the corporate with debt and left the corporate with cash after exiting Falling aside, that is the obvious instance.
Cassidy mentioned Cerberus shouldn’t be blamed for the corporate’s missteps, noting that it exited the funding in 2020.
