Markey and Warren condemn Steward’s CEO for refusing to comply with a Senate subpoena

BOSTON (AP) — Several political leaders, including Massachusetts U.S. Sens. Edward Markey and Elizabeth Warren, attacked the leader of a troubled health care system on Thursday for refusing to comply with a subpoena to appear before a Senate committee.

Lawyers for Steward Health Care CEO Ralph de la Torre said Wednesday that he won’t testify before a committee investigating the Dallas-based hospital company’s bankruptcy because a federal court order prohibits him from discussing anything during an ongoing reorganization and settlement effort.

Warren and Markey both dismissed those concerns on Thursday, saying de la Torre is trying to avoid accountability.

Steward, which operated about 30 hospitals nationwide, filed for bankruptcy in May. It has been trying to sell its more than half-dozen hospitals in Massachusetts, but received inadequate bids for Carney Hospital in Boston and Nashoba Valley Medical Center in the town of Ayer, both of which closed on Saturday. A federal bankruptcy court on Wednesday approved the sale of Steward’s other hospitals in Massachusetts.

In a letter Wednesday to Vermont U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, who chairs the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, de la Torre did not rule out testifying before the committee at a later date.

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