The CEO of a hospital operator that filed for chapter safety in May will step down after failing to testify earlier than a U.S. Senate panel.
Steward Health Care CEO Ralph de la Torre has overseen a community of some 30 hospitals across the nation. The Texas-based firm’s troubled current historical past has drawn scrutiny from elected officers in New England, the place a few of its hospitals are situated.
A spokesperson for de la Torre instructed CBS News in a press release Saturday that he “has amicably separated from Steward on mutually agreeable terms” and “will continue to be a tireless advocate for the improvement of reimbursement rates for the underprivileged patient population.”
The spokesperson added that de la Torre “believes Steward’s financial challenges put a much-needed spotlight on Massachusetts’s ongoing failure to fix its healthcare structure and the inequities in its state system.”
A CBS News investigation that spanned almost two years documented how non-public fairness buyers and de la Torre extracted a whole bunch of tens of millions of {dollars} whereas healthcare employees and sufferers struggled to get the life-saving provides they wanted.
In August, the corporate closed two Massachusetts hospitals, leaving about 1,200 employees jobless, in accordance to the state. Â
Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who chairs the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, mentioned earlier this month that Congress “will hold Dr. de la Torre accountable for his greed and for the damage he has caused to hospitals and patients throughout America.”
De la Torre’s resignation is efficient Oct. 1. The Senate approved a resolution on Wednesday that was meant to maintain him in legal contempt for failing to testify earlier than a committee.
The Senate panel has been trying into Steward’s chapter. De la Torre didn’t seem earlier than it regardless of being issued a subpoena. The decision refers the matter to a federal prosecutor.
Kayla Bartkowski/The Boston Globe through Getty Images
