On September 25, as Congress worked to avert a government shutdown, the United States Senate quietly adopted a resolution on the failure of Steward Health Care’s former Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Ralph de la Torre, to obey a subpoena commanding that he appear before the Senate’s Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (“HELP”). The resolution (S. Res. 837) refers the matter to the U.S. Department of Justice for criminal prosecution. This marks the first time since 1971 that the Senate has voted to hold an individual in criminal contempt and provides an example of the power that Congress can wield in the context of oversight investigations.
Steward Health Care is a large, privately held, for-profit health care system that, at its height, was the largest private hospital system in the U.S., with more than 100 hospitals and other facilities and approximately 40,000 employees. In 2020, a group of physicians, led by de la Torre, took a 90% ownership interest in the company, which was followed, almost immediately, by a series of financial challenges. The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in May 2024.
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