A federal hearing is being held in Boston on April 3 to look into for-profit companies' roles in the U.S. healthcare system amid Dallas-based Steward Health Care's ongoing financial troubles in states like Massachusetts.
U.S. Sen. Edward Markey, D-Mass., chair of the primary health and retirement security subcommittee of the health, education labor, and pensions committee, will chair the HELP subcommittee hearing.
"For-profit companies like Steward shamelessly profit off the backs of health care providers while making it harder for people to get the care they need," Mr. Markey said in a March 1 news release. "For profit companies, including private equity, put our hospitals on life support to turn a profit — all while forcing communities to clean up the mess they leave behind. In health care, cutting corners costs lives, and that is unacceptable, no matter how big the profit."
News of the hearing comes after Steward released a six-point action plan, which said how the health system has complied with the Massachusetts attorney general's office and the Massachusetts executive office of health and human services since last November to provide requested financial documentations.
However, Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey's office said that the documentations continue to be "incomplete and insufficient."
"What Steward must do from this point forward is clear — complete an orderly transition out of Massachusetts," Karissa Hand, a spokesperson for Ms. Healey, said in a statement shared with Becker's on Feb. 26.
Becker's has reached out to Steward regarding the hearing and will update this story as more information becomes available.