A proposed order filed in the Steward Health Care bankruptcy case outlines a “commitment” from state government in Massachusetts to provide $30 million to support Steward hospitals “as they are transitioned to new operators in the near-term.”
The proposal was filed by Steward as an emergency motion and seeks approval of the payment agreement, authority to close Carney Hospital in Dorchester and Nashoba Valley Medical Center in Ayer, and procedures related to closures.
The draft order states the relief is requested by 1 p.m. Wednesday, the same time a court hearing is scheduled on the order in a Houston, Texas bankruptcy court. In another new filing seeking relief from lease agreements as part of efforts to sell six Massachusetts hospitals, Steward said it lost nearly $100 million operating Massachusetts hospitals in the first five months of this year.
The order seeks an expedited Aug. 31 closure of the two facilities and features a timeline calling for a public hearing by the state eight days before the planned closures, and for the state to issue a determination allowing the hospitals to close at least five days in advance of the planned closure. Closing the facilities with about a month of notice conflicts with state regulations calling for a roughly four-month period before health care closures.
The order states that Steward, which filed for bankruptcy in May, received “binding bids from high-quality local operators to acquire a large majority of their Massachusetts hospitals, as well as a commitment from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to provide approximately $30 million of funding support for the hospitals’ operations as they are transitioned to new operators in the near-term.”
Steward is in active discussions with “reputable bidders to sell and transition the operation” of Saint Elizabeth’s Medical Center, Saint Anne’s Hospital, Good Samaritan Medical Center, Holy Family Hospital – Haverhill, Holy Family Hospital –…