A bankruptcy court hearing Tuesday on the sale of Steward Health Care Corp.'s five Massachusetts hospitals was postponed until Friday.
In court documents filed overnight, the company announced that a hearing scheduled for Tuesday at 2pm has been “postponed” until Friday, August 16th at 11am.
The sale hearing marks a significant step in the bankruptcy company's efforts to sell its physician network, Stewardship Health, as well as hospitals in Massachusetts, Arkansas and Louisiana.
The filing did not give a reason for the delay.
City council members unanimously passed a resolution to declare a state of emergency to prevent the closure of a Dorchester hospital run by struggling Steward Health Care.
Steward has already received court permission to close Kearney Hospital in Dorchester and Nashoba Valley Medical Center in Ayer, but company officials told the court that it has received binding bids from local operators to acquire six hospitals in Massachusetts, including St. Elizabeth Medical Center, St. Ann's Hospital, Good Samaritan Medical Center, Holy Family Hospital-Haverhill, Holy Family Hospital-Methuen and Morton Hospital.
Massachusetts has agreed to a plan, approved by a U.S. bankruptcy court, to prepay $30 million in Medicaid benefits to keep Steward Hospital open through August as it faces a sale. The state was due to pay about $11 million of that around Friday.
However, the second installment, totaling $19 million, could be affected by Tuesday's postponement. The payments, under the agreement, are contingent on “executing agreements to acquire the hospital operations and land” of the Massachusetts hospitals by Aug. 9 and “issuing one or more orders by the Bankruptcy Court approving the sale of those hospitals by August 15, 2024.”
A spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services did not immediately respond Monday morning to a question about how postponing Tuesday's hearing to Aug. 16 would affect the payment agreement and its terms on Aug. 15. A Steward spokesman said the company had no statement to respond to The News Service's questions.
In legal papers filed by Steward last night, sale hearings for hospitals in Arizona and Florida have also been postponed from August 22 to September 10, while sale hearings for hospitals in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Texas have also been postponed until “dates to be determined.”
