The empty chair of Steward Health CEO Ralph de la Torre at the Sept. 12 Senate HELP hearing on the company's bankruptcy. Photo: Kayla Bartkowski/The Boston Globe
The Senate HELP Committee on Thursday unanimously voted to hold Steward Health Care CEO Ralph de la Torre in contempt over his refusal to comply with a subpoena to testify at a hearing on the health system's financial collapse and resulting harm to patients.
Why it matters: The 20–0 votes on two resolutions highlighted the bipartisan frustration with de la Torre and lawmakers' concern about reports of patient deaths, understaffing and other issues at Steward hospitals across the country.
- The Steward saga also has become a vessel for many lawmakers' concerns about private equity investments in health care.
What they're saying: HELP Chairman Bernie Sanders said members of the public "deserve to know how Dr. de la Torre became extraordinarily wealthy while the hospitals he managed went bankrupt and could not afford to pay their bills, threatening the lives of patients and the safety of health care workers in many states around America."
- One resolution instructs Senate legal counsel to bring a civil suit to compel de la Torre to testify. The other refers the matter to the U.S. attorney for criminal prosecution.
- Both resolutions are reported to the full Senate, which would have to act.
The other side: De la Torre's attorney wrote to the committee Wednesday invoking his Fifth Amendment rights in declining to testify.
- "The U.S. Constitution affords Dr. de la Torre inalienable rights against being compelled by the government to provide sworn testimony that is specifically (yet baselessly) sought to frame Dr. de la Torre as a criminal scapegoat for the systemic failures in Massachusetts' health care system," the letter states.
- It argued that the committee's real purpose is a "pseudo-criminal proceeding with the goal of convicting Dr. de la Torre in a court of public opinion."
The big picture: The HELP Committee has often been divided this Congress, with two very different leaders in Sanders and Ranking Member Bill Cassidy.
- But the two were aligned on the Steward proceeding.
- Still, there is disagreement over the larger lessons to draw from the Steward situation, with Sanders and Sen. Ed Markey backing more government regulation of private equity in health care, a step Republicans are not taking.
- Cassidy today cited reports of "third world medicine" being practiced at a Steward hospital in Louisiana.
- "A witness cannot disregard and evade a duly authorized subpoena," he said.
