Steward Healthcare, a for-profit company, is seeking to sell its facilities during the bankruptcy process and has solicited bids for all of its hospitals in Massachusetts, Gov. Maura Healey announced Tuesday.
Asked by reporters on Tuesday afternoon whether any of Steward’s hospitals had not received bids, with bidding due by Monday, July 15, Governor Healey said, “All hospitals have received qualified bids.”
The disclosure, made as Gov. Healey walked out of a throng of reporters after meeting with lawmakers, came after Public Health Director Dr. Robbie Goldstein said last Wednesday that state officials had no information about how the bidding process worked.
“We have received qualifying bids and are currently evaluating them and will now submit them to our New York counterparts,” Healey said. “We will wait to see what happens at the end of the day. My focus remains on protecting jobs and patients here in Massachusetts and the stability of our health care market. The situation is evolving and I will continue to provide updates and share developments.”
The Healey administration is waiting to see whether Steward provides more information on the bid later Tuesday, a spokesman for the governor said. A spokesman for Steward declined to comment on the bid on Tuesday.
A woman whose 4-year-old daughter died after being rushed to a Steward Healthcare facility in 2016 has filed a wrongful death lawsuit, but the case has been delayed multiple times.
A sales hearing for the hospital is scheduled for July 31 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court.
“DPH is prepared to move forward with the regulatory process to transition Steward Hospital to a new operator,” Goldstein said at last week’s Public Health Council meeting. “We are committed to ensuring that every resident in our state has access to safe, quality health care. We will soon learn what is needed to fully deliver on that promise, but for now we must wait.”
Steward was bidding for seven hospitals it operates in Massachusetts: Good Samaritan Medical Center in Brockton, Morton Hospital in Taunton, St. Ann Hospital in Fall River, St. Elizabeth Hospital in Brighton, Kearney Hospital in Dorchester, Holy Family Hospital, which has campuses in Methuen and Haverhill, and Nashoba Valley Medical Center in Ayer. Norwood Hospital, which is temporarily closed, was not included in the sale process.
