Judge approves sale of six Steward hospitals in Massachusetts

A bankruptcy judge approved the sale of six Steward Health Care hospitals Wednesday to three different buyers for $343 million, multiple outlets reported.

Judge Christopher Lopez approved the sale of St. Anne’s Hospital in Fall River and Morton Hospital in Taunton to Lifespan Health System for $175 million, The Boston Globe reported.

“We’ve got multiple declarations showing that the debtors just don’t have the funding, the cash, to continue to fund operations here,” Lopez said at a hearing Wednesday, the Boston Herald reported. “There are real people in these hospitals right now.”

Plans are in the works for Boston Medical Center to purchase St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center in Brighton and Good Samaritan Medical Center in Brockton, the state announced last week. Lawrence General Hospital will acquire Holy Family Hospital’s Methuen and Haverhill locations.

The Herald said BMC might pay as much as $140 million, while Lawrence will pay $28 million.

Healey announced last week that the administration is beginning the process to take St. Elizabeth’s through eminent domain to help transition it to BMC.

“We’ve said from the start that our focus was on protecting access to care, jobs and the stability of our health care system – and getting Steward out of Massachusetts,” Healey said in a statement.

Steward filed for bankruptcy protection in May. The hospital group said they planned to sell all of their hospitals while promising to keep the group’s eight Massachusetts hospitals up and running. Dallas-based Steward operates more than 30 hospitals across the country.

Since then, the hospital giant closed Carney Hospital in Dorchester and Nashoba Valley Medical Center in Ayer last week as Steward scrambled to find buyers for its hospitals and physician group.

Steward CEO Ralph de la Torre is refusing to testify before a Senate committee investigating the company’s bankruptcy due to a federal order prohibiting any discussions amid ongoing reorganization. Sens. Edward Markey and Elizabeth Warren said Thursday he’s skirting accountability.

“He is in hiding because he does not want to answer to the American people or Congress or the patients and workers of Massachusetts for what he has done,” said Markey, speaking at a press conference Thursday. “He wants to hide from the accountability of what the last five months have exposed.”

Tim Foley, the executive vice president of 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers, thanked Healey in a statement for “preserving these six hospitals.”

“With Steward finally on its way out of Massachusetts, the critical work of transitioning the hospitals to their new owners can begin,” Foley said. “Healthcare workers are the heart and soul of our hospitals, and Steward workers stuck around through months of uncertainty because of our strong commitment to our patients.”