By Dietrich Knauth
NEW YORK (Reuters) – A U.S. Senate committee opened an investigation into the chapter of privately owned hospital community Steward Well being on Thursday, voting to compel the corporate’s CEO to testify at a public listening to in September.
Steward, which filed for Chapter 11 safety in Might, is trying to promote its 31 hospitals in chapter.
In issuing a subpoena, Senator Bernie Sanders, chair of the Committee on Well being, Training, Labor and Pensions, stated on Thursday that Steward’s proprietor and CEO, Dr. Ralph de la Torre, had made “huge sums of money” whereas the corporate reduce medical providers.
“Perhaps more than anyone in America,” de la Torre “epitomizes the type of outrageous corporate greed that is permeating throughout our for-profit healthcare system,” Sanders stated.
De Le Torre had bought a $40 million yacht, a $15 million fishing boat, and two company jets whereas hospitals below his administration shut down, eliminating tons of of jobs and lowering entry to medical care in rural areas, stated Sanders, an Impartial who caucuses with the Democrats.
De la Torre couldn’t instantly be reached for remark. Steward didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
The committee voted 20-1 to problem a subpoena to de la Torre after he had declined earlier invites to testify about Steward’s downfall.
The committee intends to ask about dangers to U.S. sufferers in addition to Steward’s ill-fated enlargement into Malta, which spurred a U.S. Division of Justice investigation into attainable violations of the U.S. International Corrupt Practices Act.
Steward was awarded a contract to function publicly funded hospitals within the Mediterranean nation, however Maltese prosecutors have pursued bribery and corruption fees over the privatization effort.
The committee’s prime Republican, Invoice Cassidy, stated the committee had by no means issued a subpoena to power a witness to testify, and that the step was not taken calmly.
“Patients lives are at risk,” Cassidy stated. “Americans deserve answers.”
In a single instance of what Cassidy referred to as “shocking” mismanagement, he stated a Massachusetts lady died after giving start as a result of docs realized mid-surgery that provides wanted to deal with her had been repossessed on account of Steward’s monetary troubles.
Sanders additionally blamed Steward’s former personal fairness proprietor Cerberus Capital Administration for the corporate’s downfall, saying there couldn’t be a clearer instance of personal fairness house owners loading an organization with debt and leaving it to disintegrate after their exit.
Cassidy stated Cerberus shouldn’t be blamed for the corporate’s missteps, noting that it had exited its funding in 2020.
