The public may finally learn this week who has bid on Steward Health Care’s Bay State hospitals and whether any more hospitals are on the chopping block.
A hearing on the sale of the now-bankrupt healthcare company’s Massachusetts assets is set for Tuesday, when Texas-based federal bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez will hear about Steward’s plan to move out of the hospital business as the company seeks to satisfy the billions it owes its creditors.
Steward filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protections in May, and during a hearing held just last week, attorneys for the company said significant progress had been made toward securing the final signatures required to complete the sale of Good Samaritan Medical Center in Brockton, Holy Family Hospitals in Haverhill and Methuen, Morton Hospital in Taunton, Saint Anne’s Hospital in Fall River, and St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center in Brighton.
“The Debtors are pleased to report that, in connection with their robust marketing process to sell their hospital operations in Massachusetts, they have received binding bids from high-quality local operators to acquire a large majority of their Massachusetts hospitals,” Steward attorney’s wrote in court filings.
But even though the bidding process closed several weeks ago, which hospitals have sold and to whom has remained an open and shifting mystery.
Gov. Maura Healey, shortly after bids were due, indicated that all of the company’s Bay State hospitals had received qualified offers but did not say who made them.
It later turned out that Carney Hospital, in Boston’s Dorchester neighborhood, and Nashoba Valley Medical Center, in Ayer, would instead close after failing to receive so-called “qualified” bids.
Steward’s plan to close those hospitals, according to Judge Lopez, is a matter of “business judgment” and is allowed under U.S. bankruptcy law. Those facilities, according to Steward’s plans, could close as soon as the end of August.
On Friday, State Sen. Barry Finegold expressed concern that only the Holy Family campus in Methuen received an adequate bid, while its sister campus in Haverhill remains in limbo.
“I am hearing that Haverhill is not going to be part of the bid, which to me is concerning,” he told the State House News Service. “I understand that the bid is going to be just for Methuen and not for Haverhill. I wanted a regional approach — we are all in this together.”
Losing that hospital, according to the Massachusetts Nursing Association, would be a devastating blow to the Merrimack Valley.
“Thousands of patients will go without care, thousands more will see longer waits for care in already overwhelmed hospital emergency rooms forced to absorb those patients, and far too many will die if the state fails to act to preserve these hospitals,” the association said in a statement.
Just last week, the Commonwealth agreed to advance the first round of $30 million in “Clinical Quality Incentive Program payments, Acute Hospital Rate Add-On payments, Hospital Quality and Equity Initiative payments, and Safety Net Provider Payments” to Steward to help keep its hospitals afloat through the sales process and on the condition that the company actually sells its Massachusetts properties.
“The payment agreement represents the Commonwealth’s continued commitment to achieving the transition of the six remaining facilities to new operators,” Hugh McDonald, speaking on behalf of the state, told the bankruptcy judge.
Michigan-based Insight told the Herald that it attempted to buy all eight hospitals as a group, but failed to submit an offer that satisfied Steward’s definition of a “qualified bid.”
Otherwise, who might be interested in entering the Bay State hospital market and which Steward hospitals will even remain open, is anyone’s guess.
The Department of Public Health has scheduled a series of hearings to address the concerns of residents affected by the planned closure of Carney and Nashoba Valley, the first of which will be held on Tuesday at 6 p.m., at Dorchester’s Florian Hall.
According to DPH, a total of four hearings — one each in person and virtual for each hospital — will be held ahead of Steward’s planned end-of-month closures. However the hearings will not, it seems, prevent the company from moving forward with its plans.
“These hearings will not be adjudicatory in nature, but rather public forums for the presentation of any comments which may be relevant to the Department’s consideration of the proposed change,” DPH wrote in their announcement.
Late last week, Healey suggested the federal government should investigate the Steward bankruptcy, and its CEO, Dr. Ralph de la Torre.
“He basically stole millions out of Steward on the backs of workers and patients and bought himself fancy yachts, mansions and now apparently lavish trips to Versailles. I hope he gets his just due and that federal investigators will come after him for his actions. Our administration is working night and day to protect jobs, protect patients, and pick up the pieces of the situation that Ralph De La Torre has put us in,” Healey said in a statement.
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