BOSTON — U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont said Wednesday he is prepared to file contempt of court charges against Steward Health Care CEO Ralph de la Torre if he does not appear at Thursday’s hearing. despite having been served with a summons.
Sanders said de la Torre should be held accountable to the American people for how he was able to raise hundreds of millions of dollars while Steward Health Care, which operated about 30 hospitals across the country, file for bankruptcy in May.
“This is something that is not going to go away,” Sanders told The Associated Press. “We are going to pursue this relentlessly.”
Steward has been working on selling his more than half a dozen hospitals in Massachusetts, but did not receive enough bids for two other hospitals — Carney Hospital in Boston and Nashoba Valley Medical Center in the town of Ayer — both of which closed as a result. A federal bankruptcy court last week approved the sale of Steward’s other Massachusetts hospitals.
“He decided not to show up because he doesn’t want to explain to the American people how horrific his greed has become,” Sanders said. “Tell me about your yacht. Tell me about your fishing boat. I want to hear your justification for that. Tell that to the community where workers were laid off while you were making $250 million.”
Sanders said holding De la Torre in contempt of court would require a vote of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, which he chairs, or — depending on what action they take — a vote of the full Senate.
Lawyers for La Torre have said he will not testify before the commission investigates the Dallas hospital company because a federal court order prevents him from discussing anything during an ongoing reorganization and settlement.
Sanders said there are still plenty of questions that de la Torre can answer.
Lawyers for de la Torre also accused the commission of trying to turn the hearing into “a pseudo-criminal procedure in which they use the time not to gather facts, but to convict Dr. de la Torre in the eyes of public opinion.”
“It is not within the authority of this committee to prejudge alleged criminal misconduct based on an investigation into Steward’s bankruptcy proceedings, and the fact that its members have done so smacks of a veiled attempt to circumvent Dr. de la Torre’s constitutional rights,” the lawyers wrote in a letter to Sanders last week.
De la Torre has not ruled out testifying before the committee at a later date — a suggestion Sanders described as “100% a delaying tactic.”
Sanders also said the committee has no indication that De la Torre will change his mind and attend Thursday’s hearing. The hearing will also feature testimony from nurses who worked at two of Steward’s Massachusetts hospitals.
“You have a man who is getting fabulously wealthy while bankrupting hospitals and denying low- and middle-income people the health care they desperately need,” Sanders said. He said more than a dozen patients have died at Steward hospitals due to inadequate staffing or shortages of medical equipment.
“When a hospital closes in a community, especially a low-income community, it’s a disaster. Where are people going to go? Where is the nearest emergency room?” Sanders added.
The committee’s options include holding la Torre in criminal contempt of court, which could result in a trial and jail time; or civil contempt, which would result in fines until he appears. Both would require a Senate vote.
De la Torre also declined invitations to testify at a hearing in Boston earlier this year chaired by Senator Edward Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat and also a member of the committee.
