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Dive Transient:
Ralph de la Torre will resign from his place as CEO and chairman of Steward Well being Care’s board efficient Tuesday, an organization spokesperson confirmed to Healthcare Dive.
The information comes days after the Senate voted to refer de la Torre for prosecution on felony contempt costs after he did not testify earlier than a Senate committee about his alleged position in Steward’s monetary collapse.
De la Torre is difficult these costs — and the subpoena itself — in court docket. The manager filed a lawsuit on Monday to quash the subpoena and render the Senate’s vote on contempt costs invalid.
Dive Perception:
De la Torre agreed to step down on Sept. 19, in line with a Steward spokesperson — the identical day that the Senate’s Well being, Schooling, Labor and Pensions committee voted to refer de la Torre to the total Senate for contempt costs.
The well being system has provided no particulars on who will step into de la Torre’s position or the timeline to switch him.
The highly effective congressional committee has elevated stress on de la Torre to face questions on his administration of Steward for the reason that spring, inviting him to attend subject hearings concerning the well being system’s funds. When the CEO repeatedly didn’t present up, senators subpoenaed de la Torre in July.
Lawmakers are notably eager for de la Torre to sq. his personal wealth and spending in opposition to his firm’s money scarcity.
Whereas the CEO amassed a portfolio of luxurious gadgets within the years previous to Steward declaring chapter — together with a number of non-public jets, yachts and luxurious properties overseas — Steward typically didn’t have money available to pay its payments. Fee delays led to provide shortages that at instances impacted affected person care, in line with former workers.
Nonetheless, de la Torre declined to look earlier than Congress, saying it will be improper to testify amid ongoing chapter proceedings and citing his Fifth Modification proper in opposition to self-incrimination in testimony.
Lawmakers discovered his logic unconvincing. Final week, the total Senate voted to ship on felony contempt costs to the Division of Justice. If discovered responsible, de la Torre may face fines or imprisonment.
In response, de la Torre introduced he would sue the HELP committee, and is asking the court docket to reject its earlier subpoena.
“Nobody will be compelled to testify once they train this proper underneath these circumstances,” Invoice Burck, de la Torre’s legal professional, mentioned in a press release. “Nor does the Structure allow Congress to punish and intimidate him, or another American, for exercising these rights. The Structure, not the Senate, reigns supreme on this nation.”
De la Torre has sat on the helm of Steward because it was first created in 2010 and helped craft the corporate’s imaginative and prescient of providing native and inexpensive care.
However even earlier than Steward, de la Torre — who beforehand served because the CEO of Massachusetts-based Caritas Christi Well being Care — loved an uncommon degree of political assist and visibility for a well being system CEO.
On a marketing campaign cease in 2010, former President Barrack Obama stopped by de la Torre’s dwelling to debate the way forward for healthcare and Boston Journal named him one of many metropolis’s most influential individuals in 2012.
At its prime, de la Torre constructed Steward right into a 39-hospital community that spanned eight states and three nations.
Nonetheless, a collection of economic maneuvers that allowed the well being system to quickly increase — together with promoting the hospitals’ underlying actual property in a collection of sale-leaseback transactions — additionally left the corporate burdened with excessive debt ranges and strapped for money.
The shine round de la Torre and Steward started to put on off because it grew to become more and more clear that the well being system was not performing as anticipated. In Could, the well being system filed for chapter and has spent the months since quickly pairing down its hospital portfolio.
In Massachusetts, the place de la Torre launched his profession, Steward bought six hospitals this month at an approximate $17 million internet loss.
Attorneys for the system known as the deal the perfect one on the desk.
