Utah Valley Times

During a Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee hearing today on the bankruptcy of Steward Health Care, U.S. Senator Mitt Romney (R-UT) criticized the management under CEO Dr. Ralph de la Torre for significant operational failures that jeopardized patient care in hospitals nationwide, including five in Utah. The remarks followed the HELP Committee's approval of an investigation into Steward’s bankruptcy and a subpoena to compel Dr. de la Torre to testify about its impact.

In 2017, Steward Health Care acquired five Utah-based hospital facilities in Layton, West Jordan, West Valley, Lehi, and Salt Lake City. In February 2023, these sites were sold to CommonSpirit Health. Shortly after the sale, several lawsuits were filed by Utah vendors, laborers, investors, and the Utah Assistant Attorney General against Steward for a combined $3.4 million in unsettled debts. Additionally, three separate lawsuits were filed by investors claiming that Steward used profits from selling its Utah hospitals to pay bills in other states, seeking $40 million in damages.

Senator Romney’s remarks included:

"Thank you, Mr. Chairman and Ranking Member Cassidy. I appreciate the testimony we’ve heard and your willingness to bring this to our attention in a very clear and convincing way. Obviously, the events that took place under Mr. de la Torre’s management at Glenwood and other facilities across the country—including by the way five hospitals in Utah—was reprehensible and never should have happened.

Steward was operating in my state from 2017 to 2023. They understaffed health care facilities. They didn’t pay for required medical equipment. They failed to meet minimum operating standards. They refused to pay a number of vendors to the tune of about $[3.4] million to vendors in my state. And most importantly they endangered lives.

And it’s hard to calculate precisely how many lives have been seriously affected or worse as a result of their mismanagement. And clearly this kind of unusual setting warrants careful and thorough federal review. HHS at the federal level is responsible for conducting oversight to combat waste fraud and abuse It appears that all three were involved at Steward.

And I appreciate Chairman Sanders and Ranking Member Cassidy for bringing the issue before our committee but I regret we don’t have someone here from the administration either this administration or the prior administration to talk about “okay what should HHS be doing? How can we oversee particularly in the case of hospitals in rural areas that this doesn’t happen?”

And is there something that needs to be done at the federal level to make sure that levels of care are being provided? Is there something done at the state level?"

A transcript of Senator Romney’s remarks can be found below and video can be found here.