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We are writing to express our serious concerns with the rapidly moving process
for government approval regarding the proposed purchase of the non-profit
Caritas Christi Health Care System (Caritas) by Steward Healthcare System LLC
(Steward), a subsidiary of the Wall Street private equity firm Cerberus Capital
Management (Cerberus). While we understand the desire of the proponents to
move this sale forward quickly, we urge you to conduct this review in a
deliberate, transparent, and inclusive manner.
Given the stakes for the Commonwealth and its citizens, we are concerned about
the rush to approve such a complicated transaction. Community-based groups
have articulated a set of issues and concerns that they would like addressed to
protect and enhance the health care services that these community hospitals
provide. Other transactions involving the sale and conversion of single non-profit
to for-profit hospitals, both in Massachusetts and in other states, have been
evaluated and approved on a much more extended timeframe.
We urge you to make sure this approval process provides all stakeholders with
the time and opportunity to have a dialogue with the proponents of the deal and
government officials about the deal’s impacts.
We also ask you to make public for review the information, data, and analysis
that your office and hired consultants have compiled over the past three months;
to require Steward to provide a detailed business plan and how it will spend its
proposed $400+ million of capital investment for public comment and analysis;
and, to provide the public a forum to provide feedback with this new information.
The six community hearings held in rapid fire succession in June and July of this
year provided limited opportunities for true engagement between the community
and the proponents. These hearings were held even though Steward still has not
submitted 60 of 64 appendices referenced in its Transaction Summary and Asset
Purchase Agreement and the findings from the independent review undertaken
by the AG remain unavailable to the public.
The proposed sale would remove the Caritas hospitals from public ownership,
potentially impacting access to essential health services for our state’s poorest
residents while having far reaching implications for the future of Massachusetts’
healthcare system. We urge the Attorney General to make available to the public
the Cerberus financial and business plan, the remaining appendices, and the
information that your office has gathered over the past three months. Patients,
community organizations, and Massachusetts taxpayers have the right not just to
be heard quickly, but to have the time and access to materials to fully engage in
the public comment process.
We look forward to speaking with you. Please contact Matt Wilson at Health Care
For All at 617-275-2940 or mwilson@hcfama.org.
Sincerely,
Lucinda Williams
Dorchester House Governing Board