Steward Health Care just filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after having a hard time getting dozens of community hospitals and facilities in Massachusetts, Texas, and Florida from private equity owners.
There are now billions of dollars in debt at the healthcare center, which has led to “an in-court restructuring process through the filing of voluntary petitions for relief.” This business owns more than thirty hospitals in eight states. Their main office is in Dallas, which is also where they are filing for bankruptcy. In all of these places, they’ve felt the stress of different money problems they’ve been having.
In the past few months, Steward has been in a lot of news stories about his private equity investors stealing millions of dollars from community hospitals, which has had many negative effects on health.
Records show that Steward took money away from running the hospital by selling property owned by San Antonio’s Texas Vista Medical Center. This also shows that Steward hospitals across the country have left a trail of unpaid bills that made it hard to get goods that could have saved lives.
The bankruptcy filing names thirty creditors who are due more than $500 million. The U.S. government is one of these creditors. Some experts say the amount due could be even higher, but for now, the hospital says it’s counting on its landlord, Medical Properties Trust, to help them get enough money to keep their hospitals open while they file for bankruptcy.
Steward said in a statement, “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 satisfaction of certain conditions acceptable to Medical Properties Trust.”
