Healey seizes St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center through eminent domain to keep hospital open

BOSTON — Gov. Maura Healey on Friday formally seized St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center in Brighton through eminent domain to keep the hospital open.

The move will allow the state to take control of the property and transition operation of the hospital to a new medical services provider, Boston Medical Center, the governor said in a statement on Friday morning.

“While Apollo continues to put its greed ahead of the health and wellbeing of the people of Massachusetts, we are taking action to make sure St. Elizabeth’s remains open. By transferring operations to Boston Medical Center, we will protect access to care for tens of thousands of patients and save thousands of jobs,” Healey said.

“Our administration is committed to ensuring smooth transitions at the five Steward hospitals that we were able to save, and supporting the communities impacted by Steward’s closure of Nashoba Valley Medical Center and Carney Hospital,” Healey said.

Attorney Bill Reid of Reid Collins & Tsai LLP, who is representing Apollo Global Management in the matter, issued a statement on Friday after Healey’s action. Apollo is the parent company of Cox Media Group, which owns Boston 25 News.

“Despite our repeated attempts to engage in reasonable negotiations, the Governor has initiated an unconstitutional use of eminent domain at the expense of Apollo’s third-party investors,” Reid said. “Taking the property for a fraction of the assessed value is theft and everyone in Massachusetts--every business owner and homeowner--should be concerned about this threat.”

“As a fiduciary, Apollo is left with no choice but to continue pursuing litigation aimed at challenging the Governor’s unconstitutional use of eminent domain,” Reid said.

Healey’s action comes two days after the U.S. Senate approved a resolution on Wednesday intended to hold Steward Health Care CEO Ralph de la Torre in criminal contempt for failing to testify before a Senate panel, The Associated Press reported. The senate approved the measure by unanimous consent.

Members of a Senate committee looking into the bankruptcy of Steward Health Care adopted the resolution last week after de la Torre refused to attend a committee hearing last week despite being issued a subpoena. The resolution was sent to the full Senate for consideration.

Also Friday morning, Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass. and chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Subcommittee on Primary Health and Retirement Security, spoke at the JFK Federal Building in Boston about the U.S. Senate’s unanimous vote to hold de la Torre in contempt of Congress.

“Dr. Ralph de la Torre said he was committed to offering world-class opportunities in the communities they serve,” Markey said. “Instead, we stand here today with the parade of horribles Steward left behind: a bankrupt hospital system, closed hospitals, laid off workers, dead patients, and a CEO who blatantly refused to appear before the United States Senate.”

Markey blasted de la Torre as hiding from lawmakers and avoiding questions. Lawmakers accuse him of using company money to fund a lavish personal lifestyle at the expense of hospitals, their staff, and patients.

A spokesperson for de la Torre previously said he was exercising his 5th Amendment right not to testify, and that de la Torre was being used as a scapegoat in Steward’s bankruptcy.

“Dr. de la Torre will not be intimidated by the Committee’s threat of prosecution merely for asserting his constitutional protections,” a spokesperson wrote in a statement shared with Boston 25 News. “The U.S. Constitution stands above the government to protect all Americans from precisely the kind of assault on our rights that we are witnessing here.”

As part of the legal process to take St. Elizabeth’s Hospital, Healey declared that if St. Elizabeth’s were to close, it “would create a public health emergency due to the large volume of patients currently served by the hospital and the resulting disruption to the delivery of medical services in the region,” the governor said in her statement.

Healey’s action come after Steward Health Care announced in August that it had entered into definitive agreements to sell certain Massachusetts-based hospitals.

Lawrence General Hospital will become the new operator for both campuses of Holy Family in Haverhill and Methuen, Lifespan will assume operations of Morton and Saint Anne’s, and Boston Medical Center will take over Good Samaritan.

These transfers of ownership are expected to go into effect on Oct. 1, state officials said.

Boston Medical Center and Steward previously reached an agreement to transfer the operations of St. Elizabeth’s to Boston Medical Center, “but asset management firm Apollo refused to accept Boston Medical Center’s bid for the real estate,” Healey said.

Healey’s action on Friday will allow the hospital to remain open and continue serving patients, officials said.

“St. Elizabeth’s is a crucial provider of hospital services to traditionally underserved populations, including MassHealth and Medicare patients. Its closure would put vulnerable patients at risk who would no longer have access to emergency services, maternity care, behavioral health services and inpatient care,” Healey said. “Further, inpatient capacity in the Boston area remains at record highs, and the more than 60 patients currently at St. Elizabeth’s would not have immediate access to health care.”

Earlier this week, Healey announced working groups focused on stabilizing and revitalizing health care in communities impacted by Steward Health Care’s closure of Nashoba Valley Medical Center in Ayer and Carney Hospital in Dorchester.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.

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