Is your Miami hospital up for sale? What these next steps mean for patients and care
Palmetto General, North Shore Medical Center, Coral Gables and other South Florida hospitals are up for sale, part of owner Steward Health Care System’s plan to thin debt through Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
And the future of the hospitals — and what it will mean for patients and employees — could be decided this month.
Bid deadline is Aug. 12 for buyers interested in Steward Health’s Florida hospitals, with an auction set for Aug. 14, and a court hearing to finalize the sales on Aug. 22, court records show.
In South Florida, the hospitals for sale are Palmetto General Hospital in Hialeah, Coral Gables Hospital, Hialeah Hospital, North Shore Medical Center in Miami-Dade and Florida Medical Center in Lauderdale Lakes. Other Florida hospitals on the market are Melbourne Regional Medical Center, Rockledge Regional Medical Center and Sebastian River Medical.
All of the hospitals remain open.
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Steward Health has moved quickly to sell all 31 of its U.S. hospitals since filing for bankruptcy protection in May, though it has previously delayed bid deadlines and sale hearings for its hospitals and physician group. The initial bid deadline for its Florida hospitals was originally in late July.
Steward Health has previously indicated that it wants to emerge from bankruptcy as a more stable company focused on its Florida market. But first, it needs to reduce debt.
As of Monday, the bid deadline for its Florida hospitals appears to be on track.
Here’s what the possible hospital sales could mean for patients and employees:
What happens if Steward Health sells its Florida hospitals?
What happens to Steward’s hospitals depends on whether the company can find buyers, and if so, what the buyer wants to do with the properties.
It’s possible Steward’s Florida hospitals will be sold to investors that want to continue offering healthcare. Hospitals could also be sold and converted to another type of business or be sold for their land and torn down for development, according to John McDonough, a professor of the practice of public health at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. McDonough has kept tabs on the Steward Health Care saga and spoke generally about how bankruptcy tends to work for healthcare systems during a recent interview with the Miami Herald.
“The facilities that cater to underserved populations tend to become the most vulnerable in these circumstances,” McDonough previously told the Miami Herald.
One possible complication for the sales: Steward sold all of its South Florida real estate to Medical Properties Trust in 2021, and is now paying rent to operate its hospitals on the properties it used to own. It did the same thing with its other hospitals across the country. That means any potential buyer for a Steward hospital will need to make a deal with the hospital landlord to lease or purchase the properties, according to WBUR, the NPR affiliate in Boston.
While it’s too soon to know what will happen in Florida, Steward’s attorney, in discussing the expected sale of some of the Massachusetts hospitals during a court hearing on Tuesday, said Medical Property Trust and its co-owner Macquarie Asset Management had agreed to turn over the Massachusetts properties they own “to their lender to facilitate sales of the properties to new owners,” according to the station.
What happens if Steward Health can’t sell all of its Florida hospitals?
If Steward Health can’t sell all of its Florida hospitals, the company could ask the court for more time to find buyers or to let it keep operating the unsold hospitals. Attorneys for the for-profit health system have previously said in court that Steward’s Florida hospitals were the “most profitable” in its portfolio.
“It’s been our stated goal since our initial filing to emerge from Chapter 11 as a smaller but stronger version of Steward, with our business centered around our Florida systems,” Steward Health previously told the Miami Herald in an emailed statement.
Steward Health could also decide to close unsold hospitals, like in Massachusetts. The healthcare system recently announced that it will be closing two Massachusetts hospitals after failing to find buyers with “qualified bids” for the facilities, with more than 1,200 layoffs expected. The company found buyers for its other Massachusetts hospitals, but the sales were delayed due to a dispute between Steward Health and landlords Medical Properties Trust and Macquarie Asset Management, Reuters reported.
The health giant’s hospital sales are happening while it undergoes a federal investigation for possible corruption. And its CEO Dr. Ralph de la Torre is in the hot seat. A congressional committee recently voted to subpoena the CEO to get him in front of Congress in September to testify about the health giant’s financial situation.
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