Massachusetts used eminent domain to take over St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center, Gov. Maura Healey announced, blaming an asset management firm for refusing a bid from Boston Medical Center to purchase the hospital from bankrupt Steward Health Care.=
Massachusetts has seized St. Elizabeth's Medical Center in Boston's Brighton neighborhood, using eminent domain in an effort to keep the Steward Health Care property open.
Gov. Maura Healey plan involves transitioning operations of the hospital to Boston Medical Center. The governor says the move is necessary to avoid a public health emergency that would be set off by its closure.
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Tens of thousands of patients come through St. Elizabeth's, Healey said.
The move comes despite opposition from the group that owns the land the hospital sits on. The asset management company Apollo claimed the state low-balled them in an offer for the property. In a statement released Friday, a spokesperson said:
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“Despite our repeated attempts to engage in reasonable negotiations, the Governor has initiated an unconstitutional use of eminent domain at the expense of Apollo’s third-party investors. Taking the property for a fraction of the assessed value is theft and everyone in Massachusetts--every business owner and homeowner--should be concerned about this threat. As a fiduciary, Apollo is left with no choice but to continue pursuing litigation aimed at challenging the Governor’s unconstitutional use of eminent domain.”
This is all happening as the state attempts to manage the Steward Health Care bankruptcy crisis. The state's plan involved the transfer of four other Steward hospitals on five campuses to new operators. Lawrence General Hospital will serve as the new operator for Holy Family in Haverhill and Methuen, Lifespan will operate Morton in Taunton and Saint Anne’s in Fall River, and BMC will take over Good Samaritan in Brockton.
Two other Steward facilities - Carney Hospital in Dorchester and Nashoba Valley Medical Center in Ayer - have already closed. The governor recently announced a working group to address the new health care disparities caused by those closures.
Healey's administration says the closure of St. Elizabeth's would hurt the traditionally underserved population that serves as its patients, limiting access to emergency services, maternity care, behavioral health services and inpatient care.
“If that wasn't done it would be another hospital that would be closing in the state,” argued Audra Sprague, a registered nurse who lost her job after Steward closed the Nashoba Valley Hospital in Ayer, of Healey's move with St. Elizabeth's.
Meanwhile, a U.S. Senate committee is looking into the bankruptcy of Steward Health Care. On Wednesday, that committee voted to refer CEO Ralph de la Torre for federal criminal contempt charges for failing to testify before the panel.
A spokesperson for de la Torre said they were disappointed in that decision and that he was exercising his 5th amendment rights.
"Dr. de la Torre will not be intimidated by the Committee’s threat of prosecution merely for asserting his constitutional protections. The U.S. Constitution stands above the government to protect all Americans from precisely the kind of assault on our rights that we are witnessing here," a spokesperson wrote in an email to NBC10 Boston Friday.
At a news conference in Boston Friday, Sen. Ed Markey called de la Torre out for refusing to comply with the subpoena.
"He can hide no longer," Markey said.
