Sanders vows to hold Steward Health CEO in contempt amid bankruptcy subpoena

Sanders said de la Torre must answer to the American people about how he was able to collect hundreds of millions of dollars while Steward Health Care, which operated about 30 hospitals nationwide, had to file for bankruptcy in May .

“This is something that’s not going to go away,” Sanders told The Associated Press. “We will pursue this vigorously.”

Steward worked to sell its more than a half-dozen hospitals in Massachusetts, but received inadequate offers for two other hospitals — Carney Hospital in Boston and Nashoba Valley Medical Center in Ayer Township — both of which closed as a result. A federal bankruptcy court last week approved the sale of Steward’s other Massachusetts hospitals.

“He decided not to appear because he doesn’t want to explain to the American people how appalling his greed has become,” Sanders said. “Tell me about your yacht. Tell me about your fishing boat. I want to hear your justification for this. Tell that to the community where staff were laid off while you made $250 million.”

Sanders said holding de la Torre in contempt would require a vote from the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, which he chairs, or, depending on the measures he takes, a vote of the Senate in plenary.

Attorneys for Torre said he would not testify before the committee investigating the Dallas hospital company because a federal court order bars him from discussing anything during an ongoing reorganization and settlement effort.

Sanders said there are plenty of questions de la Torre can still ask.

Lawyers for de la Torre also accused the commission of trying to turn the hearing into a “pseudo-criminal proceeding where they are using the time, not to gather facts, but to convict Dr. de la Torre in the eyes of the public “.

“It is not for this committee to predetermine alleged criminal misconduct under the auspices of a review of Steward’s bankruptcy proceedings, and the fact that its members have already done so smacks of a thinly veiled attempt to circumvent Dr. from Torre. ,” the attorneys said in a letter to Sanders last week.

De la Torre did not rule out testifying before the committee at a later date — a suggestion Sanders described as “100 percent a delaying tactic.”

Sanders also said the commission had received no indication that de la Torre would change his mind and attend Thursday’s hearing, which will also include testimony from nurses who worked at two of the Steward-owned hospitals in Massachusetts.

“You have a guy who is getting fabulously wealthy while bankrupting hospitals and denying low- and middle-income people the health care they so desperately need,” Sanders said. He said more than a dozen patients died in Steward hospitals as a result of inadequate staffing or lack of medical equipment.

“When a hospital closes in a community, especially a low-income community, it’s a disaster. Where do people go? Where is the nearest emergency room?” Sanders added.

The committee’s options include holding de la Torre in criminal contempt, which could lead to a trial and jail time; or civil contempt, which would result in fines pending its appearance. Both would require a Senate vote.

De la Torre also declined invitations to testify at a field hearing in Boston earlier this year chaired by Sen. Edward Markey, a Democrat from Massachusetts and also a member of the committee.