by The CEO of a hospital operator that has filed for bankruptcy protection in May will resign after failing to testify before a U.S. Senate panel.
Steward Health Care CEO Ralph de la Torre has overseen a network of about 30 hospitals across the country. The Texas-based company difficult recent history has caught the attention of elected officials in New England, where some of the hospitals are located.
A spokesperson for de la Torre told CBS News in a statement Saturday that he has “amicably parted ways with Steward on mutually agreeable terms” and “will remain a tireless advocate for improving reimbursement rates for the underserved patient population.”
The spokesperson added that De la Torre “believes Steward’s financial challenges put a much-needed spotlight on Massachusetts’ continued failure to fix its health care structure and the inequities in its state system.”
A CBS News investigation spanning nearly two years, it documented how private equity investors and De la Torre raked in hundreds of millions of dollars as healthcare workers and patients struggled to get the life-saving supplies they needed.
In August the company two hospitals in Massachusetts closedleaving about 1,200 workers unemployed, according to the state.
Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, said earlier this month that Congress “Dr. de la Torre accountable for his greed and for the damage he has caused to hospitals and patients around the world.” America.”
Following news of the resignation, Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts tweeted that “Massachusetts communities are finally free from Ralph’s destructive rule, but he’s not off the hook yet – authorities must still prosecute his contempt charge and investigate him for other possible crimes he committed. may have committed himself as CEO of Steward.”
Democratic Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts, chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Subcommittee on Primary Health and Pension Security, also said in a statement Saturday that De la Torre’s resignation is not enough and must be held accountable in court . of the law.”
“He drained hundreds of millions of dollars from emergency rooms, operating rooms and intensive care units to buy luxury properties, expensive vacations and yachts, while patients suffered and died and workers and hospitals were left without resources,” Markey wrote.
De la Torre’s resignation takes effect on October 1. The Senate a resolution adopted on Wednesday, it was intended to hold him in criminal contempt failure to testify for a committee.
The Senate panel investigated Steward’s bankruptcy. De la Torre did not appear, despite a summons. The resolution refers the case to a federal prosecutor.
Kayla Bartkowski/The Boston Globe via Getty Images
Earlier this month, CBS News has learned that a whistleblower had come forward to Congress alleging that De la Torre and other Steward executives had illegally conspired with foreign officials to win a hospital contract abroad.
In his complaint to Congress, the whistleblower – identified as Ram Tumuluri, a health care official working with the Maltese government – described a 2017 meeting in which De la Torre “insinuated that he would bribe officials of the Government of Malta.”
