Thank you for inviting me to testify at today's important hearing.

They kept the State of Massachusetts in the dark. They refused to provide the information necessary for the state to be able to make a determination as to the financial condition of Steward.

I think--what we have got on our hands right now is something that is only going to grow as the years go by.

Thank you. And, Dr. Stinson, could you expand on how these for profit hospitals interfere in-- operationally with the delivery of equity and justice, especially for Black and Brown and immigrant communities that are most in need of health…

It clearly would ultimately wind up harming the nonprofit sector that provides the very same services.

Instead of health care experts, you do have wealth care experts.

We should forbid the typical private equity approach of loading health care organizations with debt, extracting capital, and leaving stripped down organizations in bankruptcy or worse.

Yes. And I think that no resounds throughout the room in terms of this balance of power at the corporate boards.

How do they think they are going to make tens of millions, hundreds of millions of dollars in return on their investment?

Failure is not an option. We have to fix the system.

It is called the Stop Wall Street Looting Act, and it is the most comprehensive legislation to fundamentally reform the private equity industry.

So, Dr. Berwick, is there anything in the deal as reported so far that requires Steward to put that money back into the Massachusetts hospitals?

Right. So going in, they would want you to think that if anything went wrong, it was because of benign neglect.

We need to put an end to that, and we can.

We need accountability here, and law enforcement authorities should carefully review every aspect of this fiasco.

The blame for this crisis falls squarely on the private equity firm that bought the hospitals and stripped their assets.

It is insufficient to simply replace one for-profit company with another, like Steward or Optum, without assurances.

When private equity gets hold of health care providers, it is literally a matter of life and death.