BOSTON — The state’s two U.S. senators are urging the landlords of Steward Health Care System’s hospital properties to dangle concessions to potential buyers to help sell the facilities.
In a letter to Medical Properties Trust and Macquarie Infrastructure Partners, Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey call on the property owners to offer lease concessions – such as lower rents – “to ensure that new operators can be found to keep Steward’s eight Massachusetts hospitals open and viable.”
The Democratic lawmakers cited previous correspondence from the companies, which share a 50-50 split in ownership of the hospital properties, claiming they are committed to ensuring the sale of the hospitals “with as little disruption in patient care as possible.”
“But your companies appear to be unwilling to make concessions in the lease arrangements, which present an ongoing threat to the operations of the hospitals,” they wrote.
The request comes ahead of a July 15 deadline set by a federal bankruptcy judge in Texas to find a buyer for the bankrupt health care companies hospitals, including Holy Family Hospitals in Methuen and Haverhill. So far, no buyers have emerged for the Massachusetts hospitals.
Steward, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in May, plans to put all of its 31 U.S. hospitals up for sale – including eight in Massachusetts – beginning this month to pay down $9 billion in outstanding liabilities owed to creditors as part of the company’s bankruptcy proceedings.
In June, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez approved the company’s request for a new bid deadline of July 15, with an auction set for July 18, according to court filings.
The company’s management has blamed its financial woes on an increase in operating costs and insufficient federal government program reimbursement, claiming it led to the Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing.
Steward owes creditors more than $9 billion, according to filings in U.S. Bankruptcy Court.
Gov. Maura Healey has blamed “greed and mismanagement” by Steward’s management, specifically the company’s CEO Ralph de la Torre, and argues that the bankruptcy process will increase transparency in the company’s hospital system.
Healey has stressed that medical care will continue at the Steward hospitals throughout the bankruptcy proceedings and that patients will not go without medical care. She activated an “emergency operations plan” in response to Steward’s bankruptcy, including a command center to monitor the hospitals.
The Texas judge has appointed ombudsmen to monitor the quality of medical care at Steward’s hospitals in Massachusetts and other states.
But Warren and Markey say the court-appointed monitors aren’t enough to ensure that communities served by Steward’s hospitals are not deprived of medical care during the sale proceedings.
They have asked the U.S. Department of Justice to appoint a Chapter 11 trustee to run the company in place of Steward’s current management and to monitor the company’s bankruptcy proceedings.
“Now is a critical time for the Steward hospitals in Massachusetts – and the communities they serve,” Warren and Markey wrote. “The ability of these hospitals to emerge from bankruptcy under new operators with stable finances will represent a significant public health victory for these communities, allowing their dedicated workers to continue to provide needed health care services.”
Christian M. Wade covers the Massachusetts Statehouse for North of Boston Media Group’s newspapers and websites. Email him at cwade@cnhinews.com