Steward CEO resigns as Markey calls for accountability from firm's senior leadership, private equity investor

The oft-maligned Ralph de la Torre is headed for the exits at Steward Health Care, resigning Tuesday as CEO of the company he founded here in 2010 as it prepares to offload nearly all its assets in Massachusetts this week.

The former surgeon's Oct. 1 resignation as CEO and board chairman will roughly coincide with the expected closing of sales for six Massachusetts hospital facilities Monday. Steward is continuing to restructure through U.S. Bankruptcy Court, though de la Torre's team has repeatedly said he was not part of those efforts.

Among other impacts, the bankruptcy led to the closure of Nashoba Valley Medical Center in Ayer.

The company said in a statement that de la Torre's departure was "pursuant to an agreement in principle reached on or about September 19, 2024." That was the same day that a U.S. Senate committee voted 20-0 that de la Torre should be held in contempt for ignoring a subpoena and refusing to testify about the financial crisis that has led to Steward's collapse. The full Senate voted last week to ask federal prosecutors to consider criminal contempt charges against de la Torre.

A spokesperson for de la Torre said Saturday that he had "amicably separated from Steward on mutually agreeable terms" and that "he will continue to be a tireless advocate for the improvement of reimbursement rates for the underprivileged patient population" despite not holding the title of CEO any longer.

"Dr. de la Torre urges continued focus on this mission and believes Steward’s financial challenges put a much-needed spotlight on Massachusetts’s ongoing failure to fix its healthcare structure and the inequities in its state system," the former CEO's spokesperson said.

U.S. Sen. Ed Markey, who has been one of the loudest voices among those repeatedly calling out de la Torre, said the embattled CEO's resignation "is not enough" and called for him to be "held accountable in the court of law."

"This resignation comes too late for the workers, patients, and communities that Mr. de Torre harmed and abandoned. He has extracted hundreds of millions from emergency departments, operating rooms, and intensive care units to buy luxury property, expensive vacations, and yachts, all while patients suffered and died and workers and hospitals went unresourced," Markey said. "As a physician and CEO of Steward, de la Torre knew the cost of his greed and mismanagement, and he allowed it to rot the financial security of an entire hospital system anyway."

The senator also hinted that he plans next to go after Steward’s senior leadership and board of directors, its former private equity investor Cerberus Capital Management, and its landlord Medical Properties Trust, referring to them as "corporate enablers" and calling de la Torre "just one part of this tragedy."