Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP), today issued the following statement after the CEO of Steward Health Care, Dr. Ralph de la Torre, refused to appear before the Committee despite a bipartisan subpoena compelling his testimony:
I am disappointed, but not surprised, that Dr. Ralph de la Torre, the CEO of Steward Health Care, who has made hundreds of millions of dollars ripping off patients and health care providers, is refusing to testify in the HELP Committee in defiance of a subpoena.
Perhaps more than anyone else in America, Dr. de la Torre is the poster child for the type of outrageous corporate greed that is permeating through our for-profit health care system. Working with private equity vultures, he became obscenely wealthy by loading up hospitals across the country with billions in debt and selling the land underneath these hospitals to real estate executives who charge unsustainably high rent. As a result, Steward Health Care, and the more than 30 hospitals it owns in eight states, were forced to declare bankruptcy with some $9 billion in debt.
I am now working with members of the HELP Committee to determine the best path forward. But let me be clear: We will not accept this postponement. Congress will hold Dr. de la Torre accountable for his greed and for the damage he has caused to hospitals and patients throughout America. This Committee intends to move forward aggressively to compel Dr. de la Torre to testify to the gross mismanagement of Steward Health Care. It is time for Dr. de la Torre to get off of his $40 million yacht and explain to the American people how much he has gained financially while bankrupting the hospitals he manages.
