The announcement was bipartisan, coming from both committee chairman Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and ranking member Bill Cassidy (R-La.). It’s a sign of just how angry lawmakers are over the Steward situation.
“Given the serious harm and uncertainty Steward’s bankruptcy and financial arrangements are having on hospitals, patients, and health care workers throughout the country, Dr. de la Torre has given us no choice but to compel him to testify at this hearing,” Sanders and Cassidy said in a joint statement.
Steward is a for-profit hospital chain that operates more than 30 facilities across eight states. It filed for bankruptcy in May and is attempting to sell off its assets.
The saga has brought further scrutiny to the role of private equity firms in health care.
Backed by private equity company Cerberus Capital Management, Steward rapidly bought up hospitals across the country beginning in 2010.
Cerberus then sold all the land of its hospitals to a real estate investment company for more than $1 billion, and agreed to lease them back for millions of dollars in rent each year.
Steward used the money from the deal to finance more expansion, allegedly without investing in its existing hospitals. Cerberus also paid executives a “significant” dividend and ultimately generated around $800 million in profit from the deal.
Steward has blamed its bankruptcy on high interest rates, labor costs and low government reimbursement.
In a separate statement, Sanders and Sen. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) said de la Torre had “arrogantly refused” past invitations to appear before Congress to testify about Steward mismanagement.
“Perhaps more than anyone else in America, Dr. Ralph de la Torre, the CEO of Steward Health Care, is the poster child for the type of outrageous corporate greed that is permeating our for-profit health care system,” Markey and Sanders said in a joint statement.
