LEAGUE CONDEMNS STEWARD
HEALTH CARE PLAN TO CLOSE
CARNEY HOSPITAL
NOTES BETWEEN PRINTED EDITIONS FROM JULY 26, 2024 – RE-POSTED ONLINE
The Catholic Action League of Massachusetts today condemned the decision by the for-profit, Dallas based, Steward Health Care Company to close the oldest Catholic hospital in New England, Carney Hospital in Dorchester, which was founded in 1863.
Steward, which is in Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings, said it plans to close Carney by the 31st of August. It will also close the Nashoba Valley Medical Center in Ayer.
Steward, created by Cerberus Capital Management, acquired the six former Caritas Christi hospitals, including Carney, from the Archdiocese of Boston in 2010.
As a condition of the sale, Steward agreed to continue to operate them in accordance with the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services, of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
Just three days ago, Governor Maura Healey said there were “qualified bidders” for all Steward hospitals. Now, Steward claims that there are no qualified bids for Carney.
It remains unclear how Steward can meet the end of August termination date, given the extended time mandate and public hearing requirement for hospital closures demanded by Massachusetts Department of Public Health regulations.
The Catholic Action League said the closure of Carney Hospital would be “an appalling loss to the Catholic community, to the people of Dorchester, and to all of those served by the Carney, and who served at the Carney, for so many years.”
Catholic Action League Executive Director C. J. Doyle made the following comment: “For a century and a half, generations of Catholic families in Boston found the Carney Hospital to be a welcoming haven for quality and compassionate medical care, infused with the values, ethics and charity of the Catholic Faith.
Now, due to the greed, mismanagement and self-dealing of Steward’s leadership, a legacy institution for Boston’s Catholics—part of their patrimony before there even was an archdiocese—is about to be discarded.
The ultimate responsibility for this foreseeable debacle rests with the improvident decision of the Archbishop of Boston, Cardinal Sean O’Malley, to sell a local, longstanding, non-profit Catholic hospital system to a newly created, out-of-state, for-profit health care corporation owned by a private equity firm—a hedge fund—Cerberus Capital Management.
In that decision, O’Malley listened to the advice of Caritas CEO Ralph de la Torre and Caritas Chairman James Karam, both of whom ended up working for Steward.
The sale was approved by Governor Deval Patrick’s Massachusetts Public Health Council, and by Bay State Attorney General Martha Coakley, who, in doing so, enriched one of her campaign contributors—Ralph de la Torre.
Governor Maura Healey has said ‘This is not over.’ Greater Boston’s Catholics should hold Governor Healey to her word.”
In 2010, C. J. Doyle testified, at hearings held by Attorney General Martha Coakley, and by the Massachusetts Public Health Council, in opposition to the sale of Caritas Christi to Steward Health Care.
Steward is a sleazy company. I remember 8 years ago that I had my annual physical at a Steward facility. Under my health plan I don’t have to pay for a yearly physical. Yet for months Steward harassed me fo a $25.00 fee that I was not obliged to pay. , Blue Cross stepped in and stopped the thievery of Steward. Even the sleazy doctor tried to say thatI owed the money. Because I stated that Steward was “crooked”, the quack told Blue Cross that I was “rude and out of line”. he Archdiocese of Boston never should have sold those hospitals to Steward. Where was Maura Healey when Steward was doing its dirty work for years?