In a sign that a criminal probe into Steward Health Care has picked up steam, a prominent member of the company's board of directors, former U.S. House speaker John Boehner, appeared at the federal courthouse in Boston Thursday where a grand jury is investigating allegations of fraud, bribery, and corruption within the national health care chain. Boehner ignored several questions from the Globe Spotlight Team at the John Joseph Moakley Federal Courthouse. Boehner, who recently received a federal subpoena, was inside the courthouse for two hours. As a member of Steward's board, Boehner was privy to key financial details about the company as its financial situation cratered and patients' lives were imperiled by staff and medical equipment shortages.
Ahead of a Beacon Hill hearing, a pair of Massachusetts lawmakers have called on a state oversight panel to ask some tough questions of the company that's taken over the physicians' network formerly owned by bankrupt Steward Health Care. Benson Sloan, the CEO of the private-equity-owned Rural Healthcare Group, is slated to testify before the Massachusetts Health Policy Commission. In a three-page letter obtained exclusively by MassLive, Democratic U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren asked the regulatory panel to press Sloan, who is expected to testify under oath, to "uphold the [company's] public commitments" to continue participating in MassHealth, and to preserve continuity of care for former Steward patients.
CLEVELAND, Ohio — The Cuyahoga County Prosecutor's Office will not pursue criminal charges against former MetroHealth CEO Dr. Akram Boutros for receiving bonuses totaling $1.9 million, a spokeswoman said. The hospital's board of trustees maintains that the bonuses were unauthorized. The prosecutor's office made the determination after reviewing Tuesday's state auditor office’s investigation into whether the board approved the bonuses. The state auditor report, requested by the prosecutor's office about two years ago, was inconclusive on the question of whether the bonuses were unauthorized.
A judge has found a northeast Missouri hospital board guilty of 'gross violations' of the Sunshine Law and voided all the actions taken during illegal closed meetings in August 2022. Circuit Judge Rick Roberts also ruled that Scotland County Hospital must pay a civil fine of $5,000 and attorneys fees to its former CEO, Dr. Randy Tobler. Tobler sued the hospital in March 2023, alleging he had been slandered, the target of a conspiracy to remove him and that the board vote to fire him was done at a meeting that violated the Sunshine Law. The slander and conspiracy counts were dismissed from his lawsuit, and a trial was held in September on the Sunshine Law violations.
The former St. Vincent Medical Center will be demolished at the beginning of 2025, according to the Sisters of Charity Health System. The hospital closed in November 2022 during an influx of hospital closures. In September 2022, the Sisters of Charity Health System, which oversees St. Vincent, announced that it would be eliminating inpatient, surgical and emergency room care.
More New Jersey hospitals are becoming members of large health systems and that's raising prices and medical debt for residents, while big hospital systems reap profits, according to researchers. Urban Institute, a think tank that conducts economic and social policy research, analyzed 10 years of data to explore the link between the number of large companies controlling hospitals in a given market and people's ability to pay their medical bills on time. Between 2012 and 2022, researchers found patients in counties that experienced larger increases in hospital market concentration — in which a small number of companies increasingly control a large portion of the market — had a harder time paying off medical debt. Healthcare experts say the research shows how unchecked hospital consolidation harms consumers.