‘Creating A Healthcare Crisis’: Lori Trahan Raises Concern About For-Profit Health Network

last year

During a House Energy Committee hearing last week, Rep. Lori Trahan (D-MA) questioned HHS Sec. Xavier Becerra about financial challenges for community hospitals and Steward Health Care.

Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:

https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript

Stay Connected
Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes
More From Forbes: http://forbes.com

Transcript

00:00 I recognize Ms. Trahan for five minutes for questions.

00:03 Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It's great to see you, Secretary Becerra.

00:06 As you and I have discussed before, community hospitals around the country are facing

00:13 significant financial challenges. In my home state of Massachusetts, those challenges are

00:18 being made worse by a private equity corporation that has prioritized profits over patients and

00:23 jeopardized the future of the nine hospitals it owns in the process. Mr. Secretary, as we

00:29 speak, Steward HealthCare, the largest for-profit, private equity-backed health network in the

00:35 country, is creating a health care crisis in working-class communities across Massachusetts,

00:40 just as it did when it drove Texas Vista Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas, into closure last

00:46 year when it was forced to sell off its hospitals in Utah just months earlier. Stewart is facing a

00:53 significant cash crunch because of blatant mismanagement by company executives who have

00:59 rewarded themselves with multi-million dollar salaries while accruing massive debts. Unsurprisingly,

01:06 Stewart has failed repeatedly, including in response to requests from myself and my colleagues

01:11 in the Massachusetts delegation to provide transparency regarding its intentions to

01:15 maintain the operation of their nine hospitals in our home state. So instead, it announced the sale

01:21 of its physician group to Optum, a subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group, while providing no insight

01:28 into the future of the hospitals their physicians practice in or what the proposed sale will mean

01:34 for vulnerable patients. So Mr. Secretary, many of the hard-working families I represent just

01:39 want to know that their government is paying attention to this issue and taking action

01:44 to keep their hospitals open. I'm hoping I can count on you to maintain a line of communication

01:52 with Massachusetts leaders to ensure that every possible action is taken and resources available

01:57 to keep community hospitals like Holy Family Hospital open and serving patients.

02:01 Congresswoman, we will do everything we can. This is actually a question more appropriate for me

02:09 when I was Attorney General because we try to take on some of these, I mean, they're vicious

02:14 investors that essentially try to gut the assets out of an institution and they just sort of

02:21 run out of dodge. And I can't tell you that we have authority because we don't govern

02:26 the licensing of hospitals and so forth at the federal level, that's all state,

02:30 but we are ready to work with Massachusetts to make sure health care is available to communities.

02:34 I appreciate that and I am encouraged by the recent work your department has done in

02:39 collaboration with the Department of Justice and the FTC regarding the effects of corporate

02:43 ownership trends in health care and my colleagues and I plan to submit comments as part of that

02:48 process. This year I'm spearheading efforts to commission a GAO study on hospital closures in

02:57 the last decade to identify the ownership models that have closed and assess the impact of those

03:03 closures on their communities. This type of study has been conducted for rural hospitals

03:08 but not on a broader scale. If you could just speak a little bit to how improved transparency

03:14 regarding hospital closures will help the agency to effectively address, respond to,

03:20 and mitigate future community hospital closures, that would be great. Yeah, we're actually doing

03:24 something very similar to that with nursing homes. We are tired of seeing nursing homes that get

03:30 bought up. They're usually owned by, you know, mom and pop's people who start them up for, you know,

03:35 wanting to help the community, then they get bought up. And before you know, you can't trace back who

03:40 the actual owner is. So now we are requiring nursing homes to provide information on who the

03:47 actual owners are because they set up so many LCCs, LLCs, excuse me, and so many different

03:52 sham corporations. It's tough to get to the bottom of it. And then when they run out of town,

03:56 after they gut the assets, people are left wondering what happened. So we would love to

04:00 work with you on being able to have more transparency in the health care sector. Thank

04:04 you. I do believe that, you know, we can agree that as we address closures and acquisitions that

04:10 don't benefit patients, that it's crucial to distinguish corporate for-profit hospitals

04:16 from their non-profit peers. I introduced bipartisan legislation with Congressman David Valdeo

04:22 to establish a federal designation for essential hospitals. And I hope my colleagues on the

04:29 committee will support this legislation. I hope to work with you, Mr. Secretary, to better support

04:34 the essential health systems that all of our communities depend on for life-saving care.

04:39 Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield back.

04:40 The gentlelady yields back. And that concludes all members of the subcommittee. And we have

04:45 two wave-ons. And remember, there's a vote on the floor, so we'll go quick.

‘Creating A Healthcare Crisis’: Lori Trahan Raises Concern About For-Profit Health Network

Category

Transcript

Recommended