Steward Health Care CEO Ralph de la Torre to resign

Ralph de la Torre will step down from his role as CEO of Steward Health Care as the for-profit network of hospitals and healthcare providers continues to undergo bankruptcy proceedings, his personal spokesperson told Boston 25 News Saturday.

“While Dr. de la Torre has amicably separated from Steward on mutually agreeable terms, he will continue to be a tireless advocate for the improvement of reimbursement rates for the underprivileged patient population,” his spokesperson, Rebecca Kral said. “Dr. de la Torre urges continued focus on this mission and believes Steward’s financial challenges put a much-needed spotlight on Massachusetts’s ongoing failure to fix its healthcare structure and the inequities in its state system.”

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.

The criminal contempt resolution refers the matter to the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia to criminally prosecute de la Torre for failing to comply with the subpoena.

In a letter sent to the committee ahead of last week’s hearing, Alexander Merton, an attorney for de la Torre, said the committee’s request to have him testify would violate his Fifth Amendment rights.

The Constitution protects de la Torre from being compelled by the government to provide sworn testimony intended to frame him “as a criminal scapegoat for the systemic failures in Massachusetts’ health care system,” Merton wrote, adding that de la Torre would agree to testify at a later date.

Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey said hoped that de la Torre will still held accountable in a court of law.

“This resignation comes too late for the workers, patients, and communities that Mr. de Torre harmed and abandoned,” said Senator Markey. “He has extracted hundreds of millions from emergency departments, operating rooms, and intensive care units to buy luxury property, expensive vacations, and yachts, all while patients suffered and died and workers and hospitals went unresourced. As a physician and CEO of Steward, de la Torre knew the cost of his greed and mismanagement, and he allowed it to rot the financial security of an entire hospital system anyway.”

Markey also called out Steward’s senior leadership and board of directors, Cerberus Capital Management and Medical Properties Trust, who he dubbed de la Torre’s “enablers”.

“Let’s not forget that Dr. de la Torre is just one part of this tragedy,” Markey detailed. “And every private equity firm and corporate entity that stands to profit from Steward’s bankruptcy and continued investment in hospitals across the country must understand that their profit-only gains cannot continue.”

Senator Elizabeth Warren took to social media to say “Good riddance” to the embattled CEO.

“Massachusetts communities are finally free from Ralph’s destructive reign, but he’s not off the hook yet — the authorities still must prosecute his contempt charge and investigate him for other possible crimes he may have committed as Steward’s CEO,” Warren wrote on social media.

Julie Pinkham, executive director of the Massachusetts Nurses Association, is also among those who wants de la Torre to be held accountable.

“I think you have to take ownership of what happened,” she told Boston 25 Saturday. “However well intended his original ideas were, this has been truly chaotic and has upended thousands of lives.”

She added, “For the folks that are showing up still every day, it’s a convenience not to show up at a hearing... You can’t brush this over. It will have an impact and continue to have an impact.”

Massachusetts senator Ed Markey issued a statement reading in part, “Ralph de la Torre’s resignation is not enough, and must be held accountable in the court of law. This resignation comes too late for the workers, patients, and communities that Mr. de Torre harmed and abandoned.”

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.

A federal bankruptcy court approved the sale of Steward’s other Massachusetts hospitals.

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.

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.

Boston 25 News has reached out to Steward for comment and has asked if de la Torre will remain a major shareholder in the company.

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