Senators demand answers from Dallas-based Steward Health, expect to hold CEO in contempt
Investigated by Jon LaPook, Michael Kaplan, Sheena Samu
DALLAS — U.S. senators from both parties are demanding answers from Dallas-based Steward Health Care and will vote to hold its CEO, Dr. Ralph de la Torre, in contempt of Congress after he declined to appear at a hearing Thursday.
In May, Steward Health Care, which owns 30 hospitals nationwide, including five in Texas, filed for bankruptcy, leaving communities scrambling to save their hospitals. De la Torre was scheduled to testify Thursday before a Senate committee, but his attorney requested the hearing be delayed until after the company's bankruptcy case.
For nearly two years, the CBS News investigative unit has documented how de la Torre and private equity investors have extracted hundreds of millions of dollars from the company, with devastating consequences for those who work and rely on these hospitals.
At a Steward Health Care-owned hospital in Boston last October, 39-year-old Sungida Rashid died due to complications after delivery. Weeks before, according to a complaint filed with the Massachusetts health department, health care workers said a device that might have saved the mother's life was repossessed because Steward Health Care hadn't paid its bills.
Last year, another Steward Health Care-purchased hospital, Texas Vista Medical Center in San Antonio, closed, leaving the city's Southside, a population of about half a million people, with just one full-service hospital. Jessica Carrasco, a nurse, was one of more than 800 employees at the hospital who were out of a job.
"To me, it felt like it became less about people and more about profits," she told CBS News chief medical correspondent Jon LaPook in an interview shortly before the hospital closed.
Starting in 2010, Steward Health Care bought more than 30 hospitals across eight states with private equity backing. A CBS News investigation found the company then sold off much of the hospitals' real estate, pocketing a large portion of the proceeds instead of reinvesting in patient care. The CBS News investigation drew the attention of Congress.
"This is just about the worst story that I've ever been exposed to," said Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass, a member of the committee.
In May, Steward filed for bankruptcy, becoming one of the biggest hospital failures in decades. In a statement announcing the bankruptcy, de la Torre said, "The company had done everything in its power to operate successfully in a highly challenging healthcare environment."
While Steward's hospitals struggled, an SEC filing from 2021 revealed the company's owners paid themselves millions in dividends. In 2022, property records show de la Torre purchased a horse ranch near Waxahachie valued at over $7 million, along with two corporate jets. In 2021, he also acquired a 190-foot yacht worth an estimated $40 million.
"Dr. de la Torre is in violation of the Hippocratic Oath – first, do no harm. Well, that's all he did," Markey said.
De la Torre, through a spokesperson, has denied any wrongdoing. The spokesperson stated that a settlement effort is underway to keep all of Steward's remaining hospitals open.