Governor Maura Healey has tried several times to block the federal bailout of two Massachusetts hospitals owned by Steward Health Care, but each time she has done so, someone has tried to put their foot on the threshold.
Healey announced Friday that the state would use its right of expropriation to seize St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center and eventually merge it with Boston Medical Center. Two members of a congressional delegation cited that decision Saturday to support the idea that there are ways to prevent the closure of Carney Hospital in Dorchester later this month.
“The health crisis caused by Steward Health Care’s shameful greed demands an aggressive response that holds Steward accountable and protects the patients, providers and communities they have failed,” U.S. Reps. Stephen Lynch and Ayanna Pressley said in a joint statement Saturday. “The agreement announced yesterday by the Healey-Driscoll administration — specifically the seizure of St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in Brighton — is the kind of decisive action needed at this moment, and we urge the Commonwealth to act with the same urgency to keep Carney Hospital in Dorchester open as well.”
In Friday’s announcement of the plans for five Steward hospitals up for sale, Healey’s office said the news would not impact Carney or Nashoba Valley, “which will close after no qualified offers were received.” Steward has received court approval to close those hospitals by Aug. 31.
“We don’t have an operator” willing to buy Carney or Nashoba, Healey said Friday when asked why the state isn’t taking the same measures for the hospitals that are closing. “That’s the difference.”
An agreement has been announced that will allow five hospitals to continue operating despite the bankruptcy of Steward Health Care.
“The state cannot run a hospital, hospital systems must run hospitals,” the governor said Friday. “And the difference here is that we had five hospitals where hospital systems as buyers proposed to take over operations. That unfortunately did not happen with Carney or Nashoba. If one were to miraculously show up, that would be different.”
Steward Health Care’s bankruptcy case and the process to sell the hospital will continue in bankruptcy court in Texas this week as Healey and other leading Democrats gather in Illinois for the Democratic National Convention.
