Vermont U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders said Wednesday he is prepared to pursue contempt charges against Steward Health Care CEO Ralph de la Torre if he fails to show up at a hearing Thursday despite being issued a subpoena.
Sanders said de la Torre needs to answer to the American people about how he was able to reap hundreds of millions of dollars while Steward Health Care, which operated about 30 hospitals nationwide, had to file for bankruptcy in May.
“This is something that is not going to go away,” Sanders told The Associated Press. “We will pursue this doggedly.”
Steward has been working to sell its more than a half-dozen hospitals in Massachusetts, but received inadequate bids for two other hospitals — Carney Hospital in Boston and Nashoba Valley Medical Center in the town of Ayer — both of which have closed as a result. A federal bankruptcy court last week approved the sale of Steward’s other Massachusetts hospitals.
“He has decided not to show up because he doesn’t want to explain to the American people how horrific his greed has become,” Sanders said. “Tell me about your yacht. Tell me about your fishing boat. I want to hear your justification for that. Tell that to the community where staff was laid off while you made $250 million.”
Sanders said that to hold de la Torre in contempt would require a vote by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, which he chairs, or — depending on what action they take — a vote of the full Senate.
Lawyers de la Torre have said that he won’t testify before the committee investigating the Dallas-based hospital company because a federal court order prohibits him from discussing anything during an ongoing reorganization and settlement effort.
Sanders said there are plenty of questions de la Torre could still address.
Lawyers for de la Torre also accused the committee of seeking to turn the hearing into “a pseudo-criminal proceeding in which they use the time, not to gather facts, but to convict Dr. De la Torre in the eyes of public opinion.”
“It is not within this Committee’s purview to make predeterminations of alleged criminal misconduct under the auspices of an examination into Steward’s bankruptcy proceedings, and the fact that its Members have already done so smacks of a veiled attempt to sidestep Dr. De la Torre’s constitutional rights,” the lawyers said in a letter to Sanders last week.
De la Torre hasn’t ruled out testifying before the committee at a later date — a suggestion Sanders described as “100% a delaying tactic.”
Sanders also said the committee has received no indication that de la Torre will change his mind and attend Thursday’s hearing, which will also include testimony from nurses who worked at two of the hospitals owned by Steward in Massachusetts.
“You have a guy becoming fabulously wealthy while bankrupting hospitals and denying low income and middle income folks the health care they so desperately need,” Sanders said. He said that more than a dozen patients have died in Steward hospitals as a result of inadequate staffing or shortages of medical equipment.
“When a hospital shuts down in a community, especially a low-income community, it’s a disaster. Where do people go? Where’s the nearest emergency room?” Sanders added.
The committee’s options include holding de la Torre in criminal contempt, which could result in a trial and jail time; or civil contempt, which would result in fines until he appears. Both would require a Senate vote.
De la Torre also refused invitations to testify at a Boston field hearing earlier this year chaired by Sen. Edward Markey, a Democrat from Massachusetts and also a member of the committee.
