The Boston Globe's "Spotlight" team, the longest-running newspaper investigative journalist unit in the United States, has published a 3,000-word deep dive on an enigmatic figure in healthcare: Steward Health Care Systems Chairman and CEO Ralph de la Torre, MD.
Earlier this year, The Globe began pulling at the threads that would unravel Dallas-based Steward, a system that started 2024 with 33 hospitals across nine states. The newspaper's business team was first to report Steward executives had been meeting with Massachusetts officials about its financial problems and employee and patient concerns about safety and quality of care in its hospitals. Steward filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on May 6 and placed its U.S. hospitals up for sale.
Now, The Globe's investigative "Spotlight" team has turned its attention to Dr. de la Torre, the longtime CEO of the for-profit system that originated in Boston in 2010. In an investigative report published Sept. 3, a three-reporter team scrutinizes the CEO's finances, highlighting several instances where Dr. de la Torre allegedly tapped into Steward's dwindling resources to fund personal endeavors.
Central to the investigation is a high-profile transaction involving Greenhill School, located near Dallas, where Dr. de la Torre's children attended as students. In 2022, the school credited the de la Torre Family Foundation for a $10 million gift toward the construction of a new STEM and innovation center.
However, Spotlight reports that records indicate the funds did not come from Dr. de la Torre or a family foundation, but rather from Steward. Public tax filings show that the only active, tax-exempt foundation in Dr. de la Torre's name, the Texas-based De La Torre Charitable Trust, had $7,034 in cash at the beginning of 2022 and reported no donations since 2021.
Documents from Steward's bankruptcy case, first cited by The Wall Street Journal, reveal that Steward Health Care Systems LLC — which manages Steward's community hospitals — made $3 million in donations to Greenhill School between May and August 2023. It's unclear if any contributions were made before May 2022, as the form only covers information after that date. A Steward spokesperson declined to comment to The Globe.
Moreover, the construction of the new science center at Greenhill School was overseen by CREF, a company in which Dr. de la Torre held an ownership stake. CREF was spun out of a small Cape Cod construction company in 2016 and operated by a general contractor who first met Dr. de la Torre during the renovation of the CEO's Cape Cod mansion, according to The Globe.
The Spotlight team reports that Dr. de la Torre held a 40% ownership stake in CREF, acquired in 2021 with funds partly sourced from Steward's international subsidiary. Between May 2023 and May 2024, Steward paid CREF more than $37 million in management fees, according to Steward's bankruptcy filing.
"This means that by the time Steward's gift to the school was funneled into the construction of the science building, another company in which [Dr. de la Torre] had a major stake was on the receiving end," The Globe reports.
A spokesperson for CREF told The Globe that Dr. de la Torre sold his stake in the company in mid-August and said CREF won the Greenhill school project after a competitive bidding process and was paid a market rate management fee.
Steward declined to comment for The Globe's story, a personal spokesperson for Dr. de la Torre did not respond to the Globe's requests for comment, and the CEO didn't respond to messages sent to his personal or company email accounts.
Scrutiny of Dr. de la Torre has intensified as he has remained unavailable for hearings while Steward's situation deteriorated. In July, a bipartisan group of senators subpoenaed the executive, compelling him to testify before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee at a hearing Sept. 12.
Meanwhile, sales of Steward's hospitals slowly carry on amid pushed-back bid deadlines and sale hearings. Becker's has organized a state-by-state tracker of where various deals stand.
Readers can find The Boston Globe and Spotlight's story about Dr. de la Torre's finances in full here.