Massachusetts Hospitals on the Block: Steward Health Care’s Bankruptcy Saga Continues to Raise Concerns over Medical Supply Shortages

Steward Health Care has announced plans to sell its 31 U.S. hospitals, including nine in Massachusetts, following a recent bankruptcy declaration. The privately-owned company intends to auction off the hospitals in an effort to generate funds to pay down its $9 billion debt.

Despite the bankruptcy filing, both the company and Massachusetts officials have assured that there will be no interruptions in day-to-day hospital operations. The decision to sell the hospitals comes after a year-and-a-half-long investigation by CBS News into Steward Health Care, which uncovered a significant amount of unpaid bills at Steward hospitals across the country. This has raised concerns about potential shortages of vital medical supplies at the facilities.

In response to the situation, Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey’s administration has launched a hotline and website for patients with inquiries. In a statement following Steward’s bankruptcy filing, Governor Healey emphasized that the situation was caused by greed, mismanagement, and lack of transparency on the part of Steward leadership in Dallas, Texas. The governor pledged to work to prevent such an occurrence from happening in the future. Matt Schooley, a digital producer at CBS Boston, has been closely monitoring and reporting on this developing story.