The CEO of a troubled healthcare system in bankruptcy ignored a legal order to testify in front of Congress on Thursday.
Steward Health Care System CEO Dr. Ralph de la Torre had been summoned to Washington to answer questions on the health company’s finances and the handling of its hospitals.
Doctors and nurses at Steward’s hospitals have seen cutbacks, layoffs, shutdowns and problems with supplies, equipment and delayed payments to vendors and workers, including in South Florida.
Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who chairs the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee that issued the subpoena in July, says the CEO will now face the consequences.
Sanders and ranking member Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana say they will ask the committee next week to vote on two resolutions to pursue “both civil enforcement of the subpoena and criminal charges” against de la Torre.
If passed, both resolutions would go to the full Senate for a vote. The resolution for civil enforcement will instruct the “Senate Legal Counsel to bring a civil suit in the District Court of Columbia to require Dr. de la Torre’s compliance with the subpoena and his testimony before the HELP committee,” according to a news release from Sanders’ office. “The criminal contempt resolution would refer the matter to the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia to criminally prosecute Dr. de la Torre for failing to comply with the subpoena.”