Press Releases

LOWELL, MA – Last week, Congresswoman Lori Trahan (MA-03), a member of the Energy & Commerce Health Subcommittee, was joined by the entire Massachusetts delegation, Senators Edward J. Markey (D-MA) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), and Representatives Richard E. Neal (MA-01), James P. McGovern (MA-02), Jake Auchincloss (MA-04), Katherine Clark (MA-05), Seth Moulton (MA-06), Ayanna Pressley (MA-07), Stephen Lynch (MA-08), and Bill Keating (MA-09) in sending a letter to Steward Health Care CEO Dr. Ralph de la Torre and Chief Restructuring Officer John R. Castello regarding the closure of Nashoba Valley Medical Center and Carney Hospital, urging Steward to provide the more than 1200+ workers facing impending layoffs with severance pay and accumulated time off they are owed.

“We urge Steward not to hide behind the bankruptcy process and to instead recognize and fulfill its obligations to its workers. Steward must pay out their accumulated paid time off to all its workers” wrote the lawmakers. “Some Steward workers also have negotiated severance payments in their collective bargaining agreements that Steward also must honor. For all its workers, Steward should provide as much severance in wages and benefits as practicable.”

“Steward and its corporate enablers have ripped financial stability, job security, and health care access from workers who have made it their life’s work to save lives. They are allowing these hospitals to close at the expense of the workers they employ and the communities they promised to serve. Meanwhile, Steward’s CEO, Dr. Ralph de la Torre, continues to flaunt his wealth at Versailles. This is shameful. Workers and communities should not suffer for the mistakes of corporate executives. We urge you and your corporate enablers to rightfully compensate the more than 1,200 workers at Carney and Nashoba Valley whom your wrongdoing has harmed and to do everything in your power to prevent the risk of hospital closures in Massachusetts and across the country” continued the lawmakers.

For months, Trahan has been doing everything in her power to keep Steward hospitals in the Third District open while also holding executives like Ralph de la Torre accountable for their role in this crisis. On July 30th, Trahan wrote to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), U.S. Department of Health and Human Resources (HHS), and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) requesting that they investigate actions by Steward Health Care that led to the company’s bankruptcy and proposed closure of hospitals. Earlier in July, Trahan led the Massachusetts delegation in a letter to the leaders of private equity-owned Steward Health Care and UnitedHealth Group requesting answers on the future of care in Massachusetts following the proposed sale of Steward’s physician group, Stewardship Health, to UnitedHealth-owned Optum Health.

In April, Trahan secured a commitment from U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, the nation’s top health official, to work with Massachusetts leaders as they continue responding to the Steward Health Care crisis. In February, Trahan led the introduction of bipartisan legislation to direct additional federal funding to local, nonprofit safety net hospitals that would be directly impacted by the closure of Steward facilities in Massachusetts. Trahan was one of the first leaders to sound the alarm on Steward in January by both writing a letter demanding answers from Steward and raising concerns during a House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing. 

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