CBS News has learned federal authorities in Boston have opened a criminal investigation into Steward Health Care, a company that owns dozens of hospitals nationwide, including nine in Massachusetts, according to two people familiar with the matter. Steward, which is based in Dallas, recently filed for bankruptcy.Federal prosecutors at the U.S.
The Department of Health in Massachusetts opened an investigation after a woman died after giving birth at a Steward hospital in Boston last October. A complaint made by healthcare workers at the facility, obtained by CBS News, indicates a medical device that might have saved her life had been repossessed by the manufacturer weeks earlier because Steward owed about $2.5 million in unpaid bills.Steward has become synonymous with the perils of private equity investment in health care.