Monday is the deadline for the deal to close for the sale of bankrupt Steward Health Care’s Massachusetts hospitals.
In a rare Sunday bankruptcy hearing, a Texas judge had all involved parties discussing last-minute financial details that could make or break the deal.
The financial troubles of Steward Health Care are costing Massachusetts taxpayers millions of dollars.
[ Steward Health Care announces sale of 4 Massachusetts hospitals ]
The Healey administration has committed $417 million to help new operators keep five of six Steward Health Care hospitals open.
According to testimony today, the state has also contributed $90 million this year to keep some of the hospitals afloat.
The affected hospitals are Morton Hospital, Saint Anne’s Hospital; Holy Family Hospital in Methuen, Holy Family Hospital in Haverhill, and Good Samaritan which is being purchased by Boston Medical Center.
“Essentially BMC, my client is being paid substantial sums of money on a go-forward post-closing basis by the state to take to take over these operations,” said Ross Kwasteniet of Kirkland and Ellis LLP testified Sunday. “We wouldn’t be able to do what, your honor, without the assets and the and the equipment and everything that’s that’s in the hospital today. If you took all that stuff out, you’d have to shut down the hospital.”
A key player in this deal is Apollo Global Management, the parent company of Cox Media Group which owns Boston 25 News.
Amid this pending deal, Steward’s embattled CEO Ralph de la Torre said this weekend, he’s resigning.
The news of de la Torre’s planned exit comes days after the United States Senate approved a resolution Wednesday intended to hold him in criminal contempt for failing to testify before a Senate panel.
Texas-based Steward, which operates about 30 hospitals nationwide, filed for bankruptcy in May.
Steward has been working to sell a half-dozen hospitals in Massachusetts. But it received inadequate bids for two other hospitals, Carney Hospital in Boston and Nashoba Valley Medical Center in the town of Ayer, both of which have closed as a result.
Steward said in August that it had entered into definitive agreements to sell certain hospitals. Terms of the asset agreements indicate that Rhode Island-based Lifespan will purchase Morton Hospital in Taunton and Saint Anne’s Hospital in Fall River, while Lawrence General Hospital will purchase Holy Family Hospital locations in Methuen and Haverhill.
These transfers of ownership are expected to go into effect on Oct. 1, state officials said.
Steward has also shut down pediatric wards in Massachusetts and Louisiana, closed neonatal units in Florida and Texas, and eliminated maternity services at a hospital in Florida.
[ Healey seizes St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center through eminent domain to keep hospital open ]
Gov. Maura Healey on Friday formally seized St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center in Brighton through eminent domain to keep the hospital open.
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