Major hospital operator could shutter some locations
Gov. Maura Healey says she is not waiting to prepare for a potential disruption to the state’s healthcare landscape as a major hospital provider will reportedly shutter some of its Massachusetts locations.
The governor, in an interview with WBUR on Friday, said the state has yet to receive a formal plan on how the Dallas-based healthcare operator Steward Health Care, which owns nine Bay
State hospitals, looks to overcome massive financial challenges.
Steward Health Care reportedly owes $50 million in unpaid rent, according to a press release issued earlier this month by its owner, Medical Properties Trust, Inc. Steward is also the subject of more than a dozen lawsuits in Massachusetts filed by vendors and employees over unpaid invoices since 2022, an issue first brought to light by the Boston Globe.
“It’s not a great situation,” Healey told WBUR, “but we are just going to continue to work on it.”
The company announced last month that its Stoughton hospital, New England Sinai, will definitely be shuttering in the spring.
At least four more of its hospitals could be in jeopardy of being sold “as soon as possible,” U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch told WCVB on Thursday, including Nashoba Valley in Ayer, St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center in Brighton,
Holy Family in Haverhill and Norwood, which has been closed since a devastating flood in June 2020.
Steward also operates Carney Hospital in Dorchester, Good Samaritan Medical Center in Brockton, Holy Family in Haverhill and Methuen, Morton Hospital in Taunton, Saint Anne’s Hospital in Fall River.
A Steward spokesperson said the company is “openly engaging in discussions … to find solutions that will keep these hospitals open and serving patients,” but declined to elaborate on those efforts.
Medical Properties Trust said it has “agreed to fund a new $60 million bridge loan” in a plan that could see Steward sell or re-tenant “certain hospital operations” and possibly divest of “non-core operations.”
Steward has said 70% of its patients are covered by Medicaid or Medicare, and it employs more than 16,000 nurses, doctors and other healthcare workers. It has cited poor reimbursement rates for Medicare and Medicaid services as a driver behind its financial challenges.
Massachusetts Nurses Association, in a statement to the Herald, said it’s engaged with the state and “remains committed to providing health care in their communities in the hospitals currently operated by Steward.” The union represents more than 23,000 nurses and healthcare professionals.