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How St. Elizabeth's and Carney got to this point

The American Prospect reports, in hindsight, it should have been easy to figure out how Steward Health Care would begin circling the drain more than a decade ago. Key point:

For ten years, the hospital chain, which originated as an agglomeration of nun-operated Boston-area neighborhood hospitals known as Caritas Christi, was owned by the private equity firm Cerberus, which extracted more than $800 million in excess of its investment out of the hospitals, then left during the pandemic.

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This story is as old as time.

Struggling firm is hemorrhaging cash
Brings in private equity firm to help
When things don't turn around, equity firm cashes out
Leaves firm in even more dire straits than it was before.

This has been happening for a very long time. Carney/St Elizabeths was the next victim. Thats the whole point of these 'equity' firms.. such as much as cash as possible out of a company, even if it means bankrupting the firm in the process. They don't care about employees or customers (in this case, patients).. or anything really, as long as they get the cash.

Sad to say that Cerebrus was brought in thinking it would make money off people's suffering. This is where we're at these days with our healthcare.

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Brings in private equity firm to help

wat

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Help meaning funding because they needed it.

The story as old as time "my business is failing. Well hello Equity Firm.. give me a few million and Ill give you control of the biz"

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Caritas Christi were bought by capital vampires whose company name is the multi-headed demon dog guarding Hades...and nobody could have expected what would come next?

Devil 1, Nuns 0

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And now the partially built Norwood hospital is in limbo.

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Forgot "partially built".
Did they finally pump out that basement?

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This scam needs to end. I hope we can claw back some the money they stole.

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This entire mess is absolutely terrifying. If, and I do mean if, these hospitals close, it will be a hot mess in the Brockton area. Brockton Hospital is still off-line until the fall. Norwood wasn’t expected to be completed until next fall 2025. Morton Hospital, as awful as it is, won’t be an option. This will leave Milton Hospital, South Shore, Hospital, Beth Israel Plymouth, and some sad hospital in Attleboro.

Welcome to a public health, crisis folks. Please leave your copayments at the door, and have a nice day.
Peace/out

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It's not actually too bad. They've always done a good job in the emergency room.

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We have the most expensive health care in the western world with some of the worst outcomes and a dropping life expectancy, but some vulture capitalists are able to get rich by sucking the remaining life out of desperately needed community hospitals, so I guess that's nice.

We need single payer health care in this country ASAP.

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We will wish we had the access to care that we have now.

I am simply embarassed by the American healthcare system :( I am in line currently for an apt with a specialist , May 28th is the first available apt.....

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The Stewart debacle is only one chapter of a bigger story. A while ago I got into a rabbit hole reading about Steven Feinberg, founder and CEO of the Cerberus private equity firm.

This guy's only drive is money and guns -as in owning multiple manufacturers of AR-15 including the most infamous Bushmaster brand.

Among other things, Steven's failing businesses received $billions of bailout money from Obama's rescue plan in 2009. To repay the country a favor, he became one of the largest donors of the 2016 Trump campaign and was appointed as Trump's top economic advisor.

Because he is very secretive, Steven is not a household name but he is way up there among america's top villains. I hope someone makes a movie about him some day -or at least a decent documentary.

Here is a good read for when you are stuck on a broken train.
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2016/11/a-billionaires-dreams-of-creatin...

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We do have evidence that Ralph de la Torre bought a $40 million mega-yacht a few months after he paid himself an apparent nine-figure dividend, and that at some point in 2022 a vehicle called Sagamore Capital Management that is controlled by de la Torre’s close associate Robert Gendron acquired a Dassault corporate jet he supposedly uses for business purposes.

I’ve never worked for Steward, but know people who do. Why have I been hearing complaints from staff about how Ralph was raiding and pillaging Steward for almost a decade?

There are absolutely systemic problems in the US healthcare system, but sometimes those problems are caused by obvious culprits. Let’s say their names out loud.

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This reads like what happened to Sears, Roebuck, & Co and Eddie Lampert, that capitalism vampire.

Became CEO, then gave loans to the business from another business he owns 100%. Then when Sears defaulted on said loans, he drove them to bankruptcy so... he could get paid. Lampert knew Sears did not have the cash flow to make those payments, so he did it anyways to bleed the company dry.

In 1980, Sears and Kmart had a combined 3500 stores. I think Sears/kmart now have less than 10 stores left. Lampert has a estimated net worth of 2b (as of 2021)

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