Bernie Sanders dubs Steward Hospital CEO 'greed' poster child

Dr. Ralph de la Torre, the chief executive officer of Steward Health Care, has declined to act on a subpoena calling for him to testify before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee on his role in the hospital company’s collapse.

Steward filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy court protection in May and reported having $9 billion in debt.

Related: Senate panel votes to subpoena Steward Health CEO about hospitals’ bankruptcy

Senate HELP Chair Bernie Sanders blasted de la Torre’s decision and accused him of making “hundreds of millions of dollars ripping off patients and health care providers.”

“Perhaps more than anyone else in America, Dr. de la Torre is the poster child for the type of outrageous corporate greed that is permeating through our for-profit health care system,” Sanders said.

He cited press reports that de la Torre has a $40 million yacht and said it’s time for him to “get  off his $40 million yacht and explain to the American people how much he has gained financially while bankrupting the hospitals he manages.”

Sen. Bill Cassidy, a medical doctor who is the highest-ranking Republican committee member, also criticized de la Torre’s decision not to testify. “Defying a congressional subpoena to avoid testifying is consistent with a disregard for norms,” Cassidy said.

De la Torre could not immediately be reached for comment. His lawyers said in a letter to the Senate HELP Committee that he would not testify because he believes the committee would turn a hearing into a “pseudo-criminal proceeding” and use their time to “convict Dr. de la Torre in the eyes of public opinion.”

The backdrop

Sanders and many other members of Congress, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., have blasted private equity owners and blamed them for low hospital staffing levels, hospital shutdowns and rising health care prices.

Private equity market players at Vanguard have argued that private equity firms make up a small percentage of the owners of U.S. hospitals and other U.S. health care organizations and are similar to other health care organization owners.

They maintained that critics have exaggerated the impact of private equity owners on the U.S. health care system.

For employers in many communities and their benefits advisors, ownership changes have complicated efforts to get health plan members access to a high-quality, affordable provider networks.

Steward Health Care

Cerberus Capital Management, a large private equity firm, used equities to build Steward starting in 2010. Steward became the largest private, for-profit hospital operator in the United States. To raise cash for expansion, it sold its buildings to another company and began to lease them back.

Before it filed for bankruptcy court protection, it had 33 hospitals in nine states, 107 skilled nursing facilities, about 7,900 beds under management and 30,000 employees.

De La Torre has blamed the company’s financial problems on factors such as the turmoil caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and cuts in Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement rates.