The Healey administration and Steward Healthcare have reached an agreement to keep five Massachusetts hospitals open, the governor announced Friday.
According to the announcement, operations of St. Ann's Hospital, Good Samaritan Medical Center, Holy Family Hospital and Morton Hospital will be transferred to new operators, while the Healey administration will use eminent domain to transfer control of St. Elizabeths Hospital to new owners.
“Today we are taking steps to save our five remaining Steward hospitals and keep them operating, protecting access to health care in these communities and preserving the jobs of the hardworking women and men who work at these hospitals,” Gov. Maura Healey said in a statement.
Healey and other officials are scheduled to provide more information in a press conference at 1 p.m., which will be streamed live here.
Steward, which is currently in bankruptcy proceedings, has already announced the closure of two other Massachusetts hospitals, Kearney Hospital in Dorchester and Nashoba Valley Medical Center in Ayer. Those closures are not affected by this announcement.
Under the deal announced Friday, Holy Family hospitals in Haverhill and Methuen will be run by Lawrence General Hospital, Morton and St. Ann's will be run by Lifespan, and Good Samaritan and St. Elizabeth will be taken over by Boston Medical Center.
To support the communities and staff served by Kearney and Nashoba Valley Hospitals, the Healey administration said it has directed $30 million to maintain the facilities and help rehire staff.
In @Issue, we discuss the crisis at Steward Healthcare, including the announcement that two Massachusetts hospitals will be closing, and the ripple effects it is having on the state.
Early Friday, lawyers representing Steward Health Care said in court that the company was “close to closing” on purchase agreements for at least five of six hospital campuses it has put up for sale in Massachusetts.
“I'm pleased to report that significant progress has been made between the parties, thanks in large part to the efforts of the mediator,” Steward attorney Ray Schrock of the law firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges said Friday. “We're not there yet, but we're hopeful that we can resolve the remaining issues between the buyers on the one hand and the state of Massachusetts and the interested parties on the other. We hope to have asset purchase agreements signed, hopefully, for all six hospitals that are being sold. We believe we're close to agreements on at least five of them.”
Schrock said Steward expects to be “able to report favorable results on the closing of the Massachusetts asset purchase agreement on Monday.”
Steward officials previously reported to the court that they had received binding bids from local operators to buy six Massachusetts hospitals — St. Elizabeth Medical Center, St. Ann's Hospital, Good Samaritan Medical Center, Holy Family Hospital-Haverhill, Holy Family Hospital-Methuen and Morton Hospital. Questions arose last week about whether Holy Family Hospital's Haverhill campus was included in the bid for that license, raising the possibility that hospitals other than Kearney Hospital and Nashoba Valley Medical Center could close here.
Schrock said the outstanding issue of the sixth hospital is under discussion between Steward's landlord's mortgage lender and the Massachusetts state government. On Thursday, Gov. Maura Healey blasted the lender, Apollo Global Management, saying it had “very aggressively” pressured Apollo to approve the deal.
“So I hope that they can come to their senses and finalize this so that we can move forward with preserving these six campuses,” Healy said.
This is breaking news and will be updated. State House News Service contributed to this report.
