Steward Health CEO who refused to testify to US Senate will step down

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Reuters

September 28, 2024 3:50 PM EDT Updated 3 hours ago


WASHINGTON, Sept 28 (Reuters) - Ralph de la Torre will step down as CEO of troubled Steward Health Care next week, the company said on Saturday, after he was held in criminal contempt by the U.S. Senate for refusing to testify about cost-cutting decisions at the group's 31 hospitals before it filed for bankruptcy.

In a statement, the Dallas-based company said de la Torre would no longer serve as its CEO and chairman as of Oct. 1 as part of an agreement in principle reached earlier this month. A spokesperson for de la Torre confirmed that the former heart surgeon "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 Senate unanimously voted on Wednesday to hold de la Torre in criminal contempt of Congress after he declined to attend a Sept. 12 hearing before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, which was probing Steward's financial troubles. De la Torre had been subpoenaed to attend the hearing.

Steward, the largest privately owned hospital network in the U.S., filed for bankruptcy in May, seeking to sell all of its hospitals and address $9 billion in debt. The company has sold several hospitals since that filing.

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/steward-health-ceo-who-refused-testify-us-senate-will-step-down-2024-09-28/

[oasis]

1. 9 billion in debt?

Goddamn crooks!

[70sEraVet]

3. Oh, no. Here's the 'crooks' part.

In the months before filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, as Steward Health Care struggled to pay its bills, the company gave million-dollar payouts to more than a dozen executives, according to court records.
Many executives received hefty salaries and bonuses. But the court documents, and new statements from Steward, also shed light on something else: Executives were reimbursed for making big payments from their personal accounts to help keep the company afloat.
Steward’s chairman and chief executive Ralph de la Torre — a former heart surgeon who launched the company in 2010 — received $5.2 million. This included a salary of about $3.8 million. The other payments include expense reimbursements, as well as $161,000 for “non-business flights.”
......
“If they're scrambling, if creditors aren't getting paid, if suppliers aren't getting paid, if patient care is suffering,” Saini said, “then it really would be important to make sure this was not a corrupt practice in which people are siphoning money off a sinking ship in order to make sure they've feathered their own nest, to hell with anybody else.”

https://www.wbur.org/news/2024/07/12/steward-health-care-executive-payouts-bankruptcy

[Demovictory9]

2. With illgotten millions in his pocket,?

[wolfie001]

5. Now he can run for Senate in ForiDUH

[republianmushroom]

7. He will fit right in with those Florida republicans.

[wolfie001]

8. Yep!

[BigMin28]

4. First do no harm

I guess that oath becomes irrelevant when one goes from being a surgeon to CEO.

[OldBaldy1701E]

6. Once the idea that they can charge whatever they want for whatever they want was discovered...

That oath became completely outdated and irrelevant. Until profit is removed from health care, that oath might as well be said backwards for all it means.

[bluestarone]

9. Also, i;m betting they ALL donated to

Republicans for YEARS!!