(VitalNews.org) – Steward Health Care has just filed for Chapter eleven bankruptcy after struggling with using private equity investors to acquire dozens of community hospitals and facilities in Massachusetts, Texas, and Florida.
The healthcare facility is now billions of dollars in debt leading to “an in-court restructuring process through the filing of voluntary petitions for relief.” The company, based in Dallas and where they are filing for bankruptcy, owns over thirty hospitals across eight different states. In all of these facilities, they have felt the pressure from various financial issues they’ve been dealing with.
Steward has been in the news a lot over the past few months with articles discussing his private equity investors who have siphoned millions from community hospitals, resulting in multiple health consequences.
Records have shown that Steward redirected money away from hospital operations by selling real estate from San Antonio’s Texas Vista Medical Center. This has also shown that Steward hospitals across the country have left a trail of unpaid bills which caused a shortage of life-saving supplies.
The bankruptcy filing lists thirty creditors who are owed over five hundred million dollars, one of which includes the U.S. government. Experts have said that the debts owed might be even higher than this, but for now, the hospital says it’s relying on Medical Properties Trust, their landlord, to help provide sufficient funding to keep their hospitals open through bankruptcy.
A statement from Steward said, “The Company is finalizing the terms of debtor-in-possession financing from Medical Properties Trust for an initial funding of $75 million and up to an additional $225 million upon the satisfaction of certain conditions acceptable to Medical Properties Trust.”
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