BOSTON — Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey announced Friday that agreements in principle have been reached to transfer the operations of four hospitals run by Steward Health Care to new operators.
The Healey administration will take control of a fifth hospital through eminent domain to transfer it to a new owner. The Dallas company announced its bankruptcy on May 6.
Two other hospitals run by Steward are still set to close their doors at the end of this month.
New operators have been found for Saint Anne’s Hospital in Fall River, Good Samaritan Medical Center in Brockton, Holy Family Hospitals in Methuen and Haverhill, and Morton Hospital in Taunton, Healey said.
The state is taking control of Saint Elizabeth’s Hospital in Boston to keep the hospital open until the transfer to a new owner is complete, Healey said.
“Today I’m happy to say that we’re closing the book on Steward once and for all in Massachusetts,” Healey said at a news conference Friday. “Good riddance to him and goodbye.”
A spokesperson for Steward Health Care declined to comment.
If the deals are finalized, Lawrence General Hospital will become the new operator for both of Holy Family’s campuses in Haverhill and Methuen. Lifespan would take over the operations of Morton and Saint Anne’s, and Boston Medical Center would take over Good Samaritan, as well as St. Elizabeth’s after the acquisition process is complete, Healey said.
Healey said she had to invoke the expropriation process to secure the future of St Elizabeth’s after its lender rejected initial offers from the state.
She said she sent a letter to the lender, Apollo Global Management, on Friday seeking $4.5 million, which she described as the “appropriate and fair market value” of the property.
An Apollo spokesperson declined to comment.
The actions do not affect the planned closures of Carney Hospital in Boston and Nashoba Valley Medical Center in Ayer. Healey said eminent domain was not a practical option in the case of Carney and Nashoba because there were no qualified operators.
“The state can’t run a hospital,” Healey said. “Hospital systems have to run hospitals.”
She also said she wasn’t initially sure the state would be able to get to a point where most of the Steward-run hospitals could be saved.
Steward announced its bankruptcy on May 6 and two days later it said it was planned to sell the 30 hospitals it operates rural
A bankruptcy judge last month approved Steward’s decision to close two Massachusetts hospitals. Steward announced its plan to close on July 26. close the hospitals — Carney Hospital and Nashoba Valley — on or about Aug. 31, because it had not received qualified bids for either facility.
Massachusetts has also agreed to generate about $30 million to support the operations of the hospitals being transferred to new owners. The payments are advances on Medicaid funds owed by the state to Steward.
Friday’s announcement came days after Steward said an agreement had been reached to sell its national network of doctors to a private equity firm.
In a statement released Monday, Steward said it has entered into a “definitive agreement” to sell its Stewardship Health business — which includes about 5,000 physicians in Massachusetts and nine other states treating about 400,000 patients — to Rural Healthcare Group, a subsidiary of Kinderhook Industries LLC, a private equity firm.