More patients choosing non-steward facilities amid financial turmoil, health commissioner says

Fewer patients are seeking care at Steward Health Care’s eight community hospitals, amidst financial turmoil that has led to uncertainty over the facilities’ futures.

The for-profit health care system is in the midst of bankruptcy proceedings in Texas, and this week filed a request with U.S. Bankruptcy Court to approve an infusion of up to $225 million to keep its hospitals around the country afloat through the summer.

Potential buyers are gauging their interest in the Steward hospitals as reports circulate about its complex financial standing, instances of its hospitals lacking necessary equipment for certain treatments, and health care workers worried about their futures.

“It is very clear from the data that there are decreasing [patient] volumes at the Steward facilities,” state Public Health Commissioner Robbie Goldstein said during a Public Health Council meeting on Wednesday morning.

He continued, “And with decreasing volume, it becomes -- I think -- a question of, where are those patients going? And where are they having those procedures done?”

Goldstein said his office has been in communication with other hospitals to see how they are responding to the shift in demand for care from Steward facilities to other health care centers.

“This does not seem to be, at this moment, a factor of supplies. It seems really to be a factor of patient choice. Of individuals making the decision to go to a different facility,” Goldstein said.

Gov. Maura Healey and her administration have said their priority in the unfolding drama around Steward is continuing patient care and maintaining employees’ jobs at the hospitals. They’ve called for another buyer to purchase the Steward hospitals and force the company out of Massachusetts.

U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Christopher Lopez has approved a June 24 deadline for bids on Steward’s eight Massachusetts hospitals and others around the country. Sales hearings are scheduled to begin on July 11. Steward is proposing to sell its physician services network, Stewardship Health, along the same timeline.

Some physicians who worked at Steward hospitals, but were not technically employed through the health care system, are choosing to take their practices elsewhere, said Eduardo Haddad, council member and chief of medical affairs at Lawrence General Hospital.

“I think the department is doing everything possible to protect the public, but there are certain things that happen that we cannot control, and that’s ultimately the trust of the physicians, the operators that utilize these hospitals. And a lot of these are not Steward employees, so they have choices of where to go to perform their procedures,” Haddad said.

In the Merrimack Valley, where Haddad works, he said some services previously offered at Steward-owned Holy Family Hospital in Methuen are no longer offered at the hospital. Those providers have moved their practice to Lawrence General Hospital, Lowell General Hospital and other surrounding facilities, he said.

Orthopedics and neurosurgery services that were previously offered at Holy Family Hospital have moved to other facilities, Haddad said.

“The best outcome here is a quick resolution and a change in operator so that we can acquire trust again on these facilities, not just for the present, but for the future where people need to look at their ability to grow and invest time and effort into the facilities, when right now that is just not there,” he said.

The Health Policy Commission, a health care cost oversight agency, said in March that it plans to review the proposed sale of Steward’s physician network, but that it was missing the necessary information from Steward. Three months later, the HPC says it still has not received the information they say they need to review the sale.

The parties involved, Steward and Optum, have not submitted key required documents, including the definitive agreement governing the transaction, an HPC spokesperson said on Wednesday.

State officials have claimed the hospital system also has not filed necessary financial information to state regulators, though the health care system disagrees, saying they have sent in available information.

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