Massachusetts Governor Seizes Private Hospital Through Eminent Domain

Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey said on Friday that her administration has formally seized a hospital via eminent domain to keep it open and transfer the facility to a new owner.

St. Elizabeth Medical Center in Boston is one of a group of medical facilities operated by Texas-based Steward Health Care, which announced its bankruptcy in May.

St. Elizabeth Medical Center’s operations will be transferred to the Boston Medical Center (BMC) to “protect access to care for tens of thousands of patients and save thousands of jobs,” the Democratic governor said in a statement.

Healey’s office said that Steward and the BMC came to an agreement to transfer operations to BMC but that one of the asset management companies that owns the land, Apollo Global Management, did not accept BMC’s bid.

The governor accused Apollo of putting “greed ahead of the health and wellbeing of the people of Massachusetts,” saying that it’s one reason why her office is targeting the property via eminent domain. According to the Legal Information Institute, eminent domain is the power a government has to take private property for public use if it provides compensation to the property’s owners.

The statement did not say whether compensation will be provided to Apollo, which has not released a statement on Healey’s actions. The Epoch Times contacted the asset management firm and Healey’s office for comment but received no reply by publication time. […]

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