March 31, 2020 / TARA BANNOW
Pennsylvania is coming to the rescue of a roughly 200-bed hospital whose private equity-owned operator announced plans to shutter the facility amid the deadly COVID-19 pandemic.
Gov. Tom Wolf’s office has agreed to hand over $8 million in emergency funding to Easton Hospital in Easton, roughly 70 miles north of Philadelphia. The hospital’s operator, Steward Health Care, has in exchange agreed to keep the hospital open until the end of April. Steward is owned by the private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management, which has more than $42 billion in assets under management.
It’s far short of the $40 million Steward had originally requested in a letter to the governor’s office as part of a broader plan to keep the hospital open, said Robert Freeman, a Democratic state representative whose district includes Easton. Steward had previously announced plans to close the hospital as of April 1. The governor’s office has indicated that some of the forthcoming money from the federal COVID-19 stimulus could also go to the hospital, he said.
“You can’t close down a 200-bed facility with all the equipment and trained personnel at a time like this,” Freeman said. “That’s just irresponsible.”
