Governor Maura Healey calls for Steward Health Care to release financial information and leave the state

By Sam Shipman

Steward Health Care, supervisor of nine hospitals in Massachusetts, has two days to release its audited financial statements. The company has obscured these statements for years. Now, Gov. Maura Healey has told Steward Health Care’s CEO that the company must release these statements before the state takes further steps to protect the employees and patients of the hospitals.

“For years, you have refused to engage in the same level of basic transparency that every other system in Massachusetts offers by not releasing your audited financial statements,” wrote Governor Healey in a press release. “Your continued refusal to do so, particularly at this moment, is irresponsible and an affront to the patients, workers, and communities that the Steward hospitals serve. It also leads to a further breakdown in trust and creates a major roadblock to our ability to work together to resolve this effectively.”

Steward Health Care said in a statement that it had previously shown the state financial documents, but it was unclear if the company had already complied with Healey’s new two-day deadline.

Hospitals under Steward’s operations are at risk of closing due to the company’s debt; the healthcare providers employ roughly 16,000 people in Massachusetts.