The financially frayed Steward Health Care announced that Ralph de la Torre will step down as CEO and chairman on Oct. 1.
Reuters reported that a spokesperson for de la Torre confirmed that he “has amicably separated from Steward on mutually agreeable terms,” and “he will continue to be a tireless advocate for the improvement of reimbursement rates for the underprivileged patient population.” The departure of de la Torre comes after he held in criminal contempt by a unanimous U.S. Senate vote for ignoring a subpoena to testify before a Sept. 12 hearing related to his company’s bankruptcy firing.
Steward filed for bankruptcy in May and announced it would address its $9 billion in debt by selling its 31 hospitals – several hospitals have already been sold. The company’s financial problems also impacted its parent company, Medical Properties Trust Inc. (NYSE: MPW).
The chaos from Steward’s bankruptcy has created a political upheaval in Massachusetts, where several of the hospitals are based. However, de la Torre’s spokesperson tried to spin the company’s problems to the state by claiming that “Steward’s financial challenges put a much-needed spotlight on Massachusetts’ ongoing failure to fix its healthcare structure and the inequities in its state system.”
