Steward Health Care CEO Ralph de la Torre has overseen a network of some 30 hospitals around the country. The Texas-based company's troubled recent history has drawn scrutiny from elected officials in New England, where some of its hospitals are located. A spokesperson for de la Torre told CBS News in a statement Saturday that he "has amicably separated from Steward on mutually agreeable terms' and 'will continue to be a tireless advocate for the improvement of reimbursement rates for the underprivileged patient population.' The spokesperson added that de la Torre 'believes Steward's financial challenges put a much-needed spotlight on Massachusetts's ongoing failure to fix its healthcare structure and the inequities in its state system.' A CBS News investigation that spanned nearly two years documented how private equity investors and de la Torre extracted hundreds of millions of dollars while healthcare workers and patients struggled to get the life-saving supplies they needed.
