Details how Steward’s financial destruction created dangerous conditions for patients, workers, and communities

Report Text (PDF)

Washington (September 11, 2024) – Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), chair of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Subcommittee on Primary Health and Retirement Security, today unveiled “The Steward Health Care Report: How Corporate Greed Hurt Patients, Health Workers, and Communities.” The report spotlights patient and worker experiences, hospital quality data, and information on hospital closures in Massachusetts and around the country, to document the devastating impacts of Steward Health Care’s (“Steward’s”) mismanagement. The report comes in advance of the September 12 HELP Committee hearing on Steward’s bankruptcy for which Steward CEO Dr. Ralph de la Torre has been subpoenaed to testify.

As the report details, Steward became a case study of the extent of harm that corporate greed can have on health care access, quality, and safety. Using data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Lown Institute, reports from health workers, bankruptcy documents, and other public reporting, the report details how Steward’s financial destruction translated to dangerous conditions for patients and health workers and makes the case for why we need permanent guardrails against corporate greed in health care.

In the report, Senator Markey writes, “Using hospitals as a get-rich-quick scheme creates a powder keg for the actual provision of care...Steward Health Care – enabled by Cerberus Capital Management and Medical Properties Trust – has preyed on the hospitals on which communities rely. Its malpractice shows in the stunning cost that communities, workers, and patients are now paying for Steward’s greed. Communities are paying with closures of essential health institutions. Workers are paying with their livelihoods. Patients are paying with their lives.”   

The report includes new data and testimony from workers and patients on the effects of private equity’s cost cutting in Steward health care access, quality, and safety. Key findings include:

• Patients at some Steward-owned hospitals spend hours longer in emergency departments as compared to the national average. 
• From 2017 to 2024, several Steward-owned hospitals saw significant increases in the amount of time patients spent in emergency departments. 
• Patients at some Steward-owned hospitals left the emergency department without care at rates vastly higher than the national average, and the rates of patients leaving the emergency department without care increased over time. 
• Death rates for certain conditions at some Steward-owned hospitals increased as death rates for those same conditions held steady or decreased across the country. 
• More than half of Steward-owned hospitals rank in the bottom half of acute care hospitals nationwide for patient outcomes, and many of those hospitals rank in the bottom quartile for hospitals nationwide and in their state. 
• Workers report difficulty providing care to patients, sustaining on-the-job injuries, and reduced morale due to degrading facilities, missing equipment, and chronic understaffing. Steward-owned hospitals have been repeatedly cited for creating unsafe conditions for patients. 
• From 2014 to 2024, Steward Health Care closed eight hospitals across four states. At a minimum, this translates to the loss of roughly 1,533 patient beds and 4,431 jobs for health providers, staff, and administrators.

A copy of “The Steward Health Care Report: How Corporate Greed Hurt Patients, Health Workers, and Communities,” can be found HERE.

Senator Markey has consistently advocated for transparency and accountability for private equity in health care amidst the Steward hospital crisis.

On July 31, 2024, Senator Markey sent a letter to Steward Health Care, Medical Properties Trust, Inc. (MPT), and Macquarie Investment Partners (MIP), regarding Steward Health Care’s announced closure of Carney Hospital and Nashoba Valley Medical Center and the ongoing bankruptcy proceedings. The letter was included with Massachusetts Nurses Association’s pleading before the Texas Southern District Bankruptcy Court objecting to Steward’s emergency motion to close Carney Hospital and Nashoba Valley Medical Center.

Also in July, Senator Markey spoke at a press conference after Steward announced the closure of Nashoba Valley Medical Center in Ayer and Carney Hospital in Dorchester. Earlier in the month, Senator Markey was joined by fifteen bipartisan colleagues in voting to subpoena Steward Health Care CEO Dr. Ralph de la Torre to compel him to appear before the HELP Committee on September 12 and answer for the business practices of Steward Health and the role private equity and real estate investment trusts played in its bankruptcy. This was the first time the Senate HELP Committee had issued a subpoena since 1981.

On July 25, Senator Markey and Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal (WA-07) introduced the Health Over Wealth Act, legislation that would put safeguards in place to protect workers, patients, and health care quality, access, and safety; create stronger accountability measures for corporate greed; and close tax loopholes that benefit real estate investment trusts making money off of health care property.

At a Boston field hearing he chaired in April on the Steward crisis and the role of corporate greed in health care, Senator Markey released his legislative agenda calling for transparency and accountability for private equity in health care; protecting patients, providers, and workers; and guaranteeing health care for all. Despite numerous invitations from Senator Markey, including a joint invitation from Senators Markey and Warren, to testify at the hearing, Dr. de la Torre refused.

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