On Thursday, Gov. Josh Shapiro (D-PA) held a press briefing at Crozer-Chester Medical Center in Delaware County to announce his new proposal to reform private equity in health care.
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00:00for 37 years. I want to thank everyone for coming here today, especially
00:05Representative Heather Boyd, Representative Gina Curry, Representative
00:10Craig Williams, Senator John Kane, Representative Carol Kazem, Mayor Ed
00:15Brown, Dr Monica Taylor, Mayor William Denon, Mayor Stephen Roots,
00:22County President, County Council President Christina Peterson and
00:26Council Member Mariah Crawford. Thank you all for coming today.
00:32Never did I think Crozier would feel so desolate. I knew the health system
00:36before prospect medical came into our lives and created our nightmares. I can
00:40tell you because I was here. We let the wolf in the door here in Delaware
00:45County and we can never ever do that again. The wolf and out of state
00:50private equity funded company came in and ruthlessly without hesitation,
00:55without shame, ate us all up. Prospect clothes, Springfield Hospital. They
01:01closed Delaware County Memorial Hospital. They shut down the detox
01:05services at Crozier, abandoning our community's most vulnerable patients.
01:10They shut down the hour at Taylor Hospital. Then they shut down the whole
01:15system, abandoning our patients, abandoning their caregivers and D
01:20stabilizing the critical care in the fifth largest county in Pennsylvania,
01:26leaving patients and staff without their medical records, without their
01:30physicians and now wait times and appointments over a year out. In most
01:37cases, the surrounding hospitals cannot handle our volume. We are now
01:42devastating their health systems. They did this despite all of the efforts of
01:47all of the people who stand here behind me. Governor Shapiro's office
01:51worked tirelessly behind the scenes to save our health system. The
01:55Pennsylvania Attorney General's office took bold actions on behalf of our
01:59health system. The Delaware County delegation and Delaware County Council
02:03worked hand in hand with us every step of the way to stop corporate looters.
02:09Still, our health system closed because that was always prospects plan to
02:15drain every last cent and every drop of blood from our health system before
02:21cutting and running back to California.
02:25It was immoral. It was devastating, and it was legal. Think about that for a
02:33minute. It was legal. As healthcare providers, we take an oath to do no
02:39harm. Nurses, tax paramedics, professionals, physicians, pharmacists,
02:44chaplains, everyone who works within the walls of a hospital, are committed
02:49to the well being of the patients who walk through those hospital doors. What
02:54happens when harm is the business model of your health system? I can tell you
02:59what happens. Shooting victims die. Mothers give births at places far
03:04outside their community limits. If they make it there, caregivers air
03:08abandoned. Behavioral health patients wander the streets. Community suffer.
03:15That's why we have to stop this before private equity ever does this to any
03:19other health system. Before closure, there was Hahnemann and more recently,
03:24Sharon Regional Medical Center. Each closed closure left devastation
03:29wherever they were, and we cannot ever let this legally happen again. We must
03:34find a way to restore our health system and return to our care to our
03:38patients and jobs to our staff, all of whom have stayed. They stayed the
03:44course. They trusted us, and they trusted our local government and our
03:48leaders to do no harm. Thank you.
04:01Hello and thank you to the many people who have gathered here today. My name
04:05is Dr Max Cooper, and until recently I've been an ER doctor here at
04:10Crozier.
04:12I've worked here for seven plus years, and during that time I've born daily
04:16witness to the sorts of miracles that this place can produce. I've seen
04:21hearts restarted, and I've seen gunshot victims resuscitated.
04:27This is a place where miracles happen, and this is a place where miracles
04:32should happen still,
04:35except that Prospect Medical Holding running the private equity playbook ran
04:40our hospital into the ground and were closed.
04:43And just a day after we closed to trauma just a block from where we
04:49stand today, a young man was shot in the chest, and he should have been
04:53seen by my partners that I in the emergency department just over my
04:57shoulder. But because we were closed, E. M. S. Said to transport him 30
05:01minutes away to Lincoln Hospital
05:05and 20 minutes into that trip, his heart stopped
05:09and he died.
05:14Yeah,
05:16and we cannot let this catastrophe happen again.
05:19We must prevent the next Crozier. We must prevent private equity from
05:26raiding Pennsylvania hospitals. We must have additional tools at our disposal
05:32to prevent this from happening again. And that's why I'm supporting HB 14 60
05:37and SB 3 22 to give our additional oversight capacity to make sure that
05:43this doesn't happen again. And I hope you'll all join me in supporting those
05:47bills. Thank you. Very happy to turn it over to Governor Shapiro.
05:59Thank you, Doctor.
06:01We are here today because Crozier
06:06was a critically important health care system right here in Delaware County,
06:12a health care system that has been forced to close its doors and stop
06:17serving its patients because of the greed and mismanagement of a private
06:25equity firm.
06:27The team of health care providers who worked here, well, they delivered
06:32life saving quality health care to the people who lived in this community.
06:38They held up their end of the bargain. People like Peggy Malone did it for
06:43nearly four decades as a nurse. Dr Cooper did it for almost a decade.
06:50They did their part. They served their community and their patients.
06:57Unfortunately, this community and the people who worked here and the patients
07:02who received quality health care here, well, they are now suffering the costs
07:08of one company's greed. Prospect Medical Holdings was the for profit entity
07:15that owned Crozier. They're what's known as a private equity firm. Let me
07:22explain what a private equity firm does in real simple terms. They raise
07:27capital from wealthy individuals or wealthy institutions. They use that
07:33money to go around and buy up different companies.
07:37Then they structure those companies with a single purpose in mind to turn a
07:44profit, and then they quickly sell those companies, usually somewhere
07:49between two and six years. In the health care space, they buy up hospitals
07:57and health care facilities, line their own pockets by stripping money and
08:02resources from those facilities, and in turn they compromise health care. Then
08:08in many cases, they skip town, leaving taxpayers to hold the bag and
08:14communities without care and communities without services that they
08:19so desperately need. Because remember, the singular goal of a private equity
08:26firm is to turn a profit, not to deliver quality care, not to care about
08:33a community. That is exactly what Prospect did to Crozier and to the
08:39people of the city of Chester and Delaware County. After pulling as much
08:45money as they could out of this community, Prospect then protected
08:50themselves and the profits they made by filing for bankruptcy and closing both
08:58Taylor Hospital and Crozier Chester Medical Center. And if you look back
09:03over the last three years, Prospect has closed four hospitals in Delaware
09:10County. Like I said, their motive is to make a quick profit, nothing more.
09:19The closure here is going to hurt real people, Pennsylvanians who work hard to
09:27try and make sure they can take care of themselves and their families. They just
09:31want to have peace of mind that they've got a doctor in their community, a
09:36caring nurse in their community ready to take care of their health care needs
09:41too. Now that Crozier has closed, it's about a 30 minute drive to the next
09:48closest hospital. But for many people here in Delco, it's even further
09:53because a whole lot of folks don't have a car to be able to drive those 30
09:57minutes. And even for those who do, 30 minutes is way too long to be able to
10:04access health care in a time of crisis. Unfortunately, this challenge isn't just
10:12reserved for the good people of Delaware County across Pennsylvania,
10:16especially in some of the most rural parts of our commonwealth. Private
10:21equity is stripping money out of our hospitals and health care systems with
10:25total disregard for the communities who rely on them. In Mercer County, on the
10:31other side of Pennsylvania, Sharon Regional Medical Center was forced to
10:36close its doors as a result of another private equity owner, Stewart Health
10:41Care, who also protected themselves by filing for bankruptcy. Fortunately,
10:46they're back open now under new owners, but they should have never closed in the
10:51first place. I am done letting private equity wreak havoc on our health care
10:58system, wreak havoc on our communities, treating our hospitals like a piggy bank
11:04that they can drain and then smash on the floor. Those days are over. The time
11:11for action is right now.
11:13It is long past time to stand up for our local hospitals and nursing facilities
11:23and put in place real safeguards against private equity and for our community. How
11:31about we tip the balance of the rules away from private equity and back to the
11:36people? Let's put the people before the powerful in Pennsylvania. I called for
11:43this reform in my budget address back in February, and I came here today to tell
11:48you how grateful I am to Representative Borowski and Senator Carney for their
11:53leadership on this issue. They join us here today, and you'll hear from them in
11:58a moment. They have now sponsored the Health System Protection Act in the
12:02House and Senate, which will take two concrete steps, two significant
12:08protections and put them in place in our health care system. First, it would
12:14stop what's known as these harmful lease back arrangements where private equity
12:19firms force hospitals to literally sell off the land that those hospitals are
12:26built on, and then they rent those spaces back at ridiculously high prices.
12:33What they're really doing with that arrangement is sucking a whole bunch of
12:37money out of the health care system and putting it back in their private equity
12:41pockets. That's what happened right here at Crozier, and this legislation would
12:47ban that practice across Pennsylvania. The second key component of this
12:52legislation is to empower the Office of Attorney General to review and, if
12:57necessary, block or place conditions on sales involving health care institutions
13:04to for-profit entities like Prospect. This would give the Attorney General of
13:09Pennsylvania more power to protect Pennsylvania communities and prevent
13:14them from being hurt by companies just looking to line their own pockets. Now,
13:20you all know I served as Attorney General for six years in this
13:23Commonwealth. I wish I had that kind of power when I was Attorney General, to be
13:28able to protect communities like Delaware County from entities like
13:33Prospect. That bill was introduced in Harrisburg this week, and I hope
13:38lawmakers come together, Democrat and Republican, like the group we have
13:42assembled here today, and quickly pass this much-needed legislation, put it on
13:48my desk, and I will sign it into law. I will sign it into law.
13:57This is common sense, and I think it is bipartisan as well. This is an issue
14:02that's hurting urban, rural, and suburban communities in every part of our
14:07Commonwealth, from here in Delco, as I said, all the way out to Mercer County. I
14:12know the Delco delegation cares a great deal about this, and so do legislators
14:17from rural Mercer County. Senator Michelle Brooks, a Republican who
14:22represents that community, well, she wants to get something done on this, too.
14:27So let's do what we've done many times over the last couple years. Let's come
14:33together, Democrats and Republicans, and solve problems that we know exist in our
14:38community, push back on those powerful interests who want to stop reform, and
14:44come together to get stuff done. I believe we can do that in this case, and
14:49I believe the people of Pennsylvania will be better off. This is an important
14:54step to stopping what happened here at Crozier from happening in other
14:59communities across Pennsylvania, but it doesn't change the fact that people here
15:03in Delco got screwed by prospect. So I'm here today to also announce some
15:10concrete steps my administration is taking to help ease some small portion
15:15of the pain that I know this community is feeling. First, the Pennsylvania
15:21Department of Labor and Industry has been proactively working to help
15:25connect the more than 3,000 workers who lost their jobs to employment resources
15:31that exist in this commonwealth. After the closure was announced, LNI and the
15:36local Workforce Development Board here in Delco hosted 10 rapid response
15:42meetings for impacted workers in early May, connecting them with career
15:46resources and information on applying for unemployment, searching for a job,
15:51and accessing PA CareerLink services, enrolling them in health insurance, and
15:57much, much more. On Tuesday, LNI under the leadership of Secretary Walker hosted a
16:03job fair for more than 1,000 Crozier employees at Subaru Park, connecting them
16:08with more than 200 employers in the region. They also set up a transition
16:15center, an office right here in Chester where former Crozier employees can walk
16:20in to get those same resources. And if you can't make it down here, we've set up
16:26resources online for folks to access. Head on over to pa.gov slash Crozier
16:32employees and you can get access to all of the same supports that you can get by
16:37walking in the door. We're not alone in this work in my administration. I want to
16:42say a special thanks to your local representative, Carol Kazim, as well as
16:46your local Senator John Kane, who I know have been working to connect community
16:51members to resources and get folks out to events where they can get the support
16:56they need. Second, the Commonwealth, in coordination with the Delaware County
17:01legislative delegation, is putting forward $1 million to ensure that EMS
17:07services remain available in Delco following these closures because the
17:13people of Delaware County don't deserve to have their safety compromised and
17:18their peace of mind stripped away because of prospects greed. I know the
17:23county leaders, including Dr Monica Taylor, have been working hard to put a
17:28plan in place to ensure EMS services continue to operate. Along with the
17:34Delaware County legislative delegation, we are proud to help make sure that is
17:39a reality. I hope
17:47I hope you will take a moment, even in these tough times, even in these times
17:52of anguish, to appreciate the fact that you have a Delaware County legislative
17:58delegation that works incredibly hard, that works together, that's focused on
18:04the good people of this county. We've been talking about these issues for
18:09more than a year. They've been on the front lines of doing this work, and they
18:14have pressed our administration and anyone else to make sure that they could
18:19bring resources home to this community. You're blessed to have these
18:23representatives here. They know that today is an important step. Passing the
18:28bill is going to be a critically important step, and they, along with my
18:32administration, are never going to walk away from this community that I know is
18:36reeling right now and in need. I need to say a special thanks to the leader of
18:41the delegation, Representative Krueger, together with Speaker McClinton and the
18:46entire Delco delegation. They've been working incredibly hard on this, and
18:51they deserve a round of applause for their hard work. We appreciate all of
18:54you.
18:58They've not only been deeply engaged in this process, they've not only been
19:03advocating for this community and will continue to advocate for this community
19:08in our budget, but they are also working to hold Prospect accountable, and you
19:14are truly fortunate to have them all on your side. Now, listen, we need to be
19:19clear.
19:20We know who did this. Prospect did this plain and simple, and they didn't have
19:27to do this. They stripped so much money out of this health system that they
19:33could no longer even make payroll to great nurses and doctors and medical
19:37staff and others who poured their heart and soul into this hospital. But the
19:44thing is, that money didn't just vanish into thin air. That money that they
19:50sucked out of this institution, well, it is lining the pockets of those
19:55executives at Prospect. Their ill gotten gains deserves greater scrutiny. They
20:02need to look into what they're doing with that money, how they got it and
20:07what their plans are for the future. The Commonwealth during this time has put
20:13in more than $15 million to try and keep Crozier open. We did that over
20:21just the last seven months. And while we stayed at the negotiating table
20:26trying to find a long term solution to ensure quality health care in Delaware
20:31County, unfortunately, Prospect didn't have the same aim. We work together. My
20:38administration, the Attorney General's office, the Delaware County Legislative
20:42Delegation, your county officials to work in good faith to create time and
20:48space to come up with a solution here. Sadly, even as we spent that time and
20:55that money, Prospect didn't reciprocate and they did not act in good faith. We
21:01can't allow these for profit companies to continue to pay themselves out of
21:06the hospital's coffers and then turn the lights out and close the doors when
21:12they can't loot anymore. I'm calling on our General Assembly, Republican and
21:17Democrat alike to come together and to fix this, pass this bill, get greed of
21:25private equity out of our health care system. Let's come together now to
21:30protect our communities, our patients and our hospitals and our employees and
21:35make sure that no other community has to go through what Delco has endured.
21:40Let's do everything we can to support the incredible health care workers here
21:45at Crozier and the community at large here in Delco. I know that there is a
21:50long road ahead. Your Delaware County delegation will not leave your side. My
21:56administration will not leave your side. We will get through this. We will reform
22:02our laws. We will invest in this community and we will work hard to
22:07deliver health care access to Pennsylvanians who need it most. Always
22:11know I've got your back and we're going to continue to work hard together on
22:15this. We've had a lot of partners in this work and I want to bring up now a
22:20partner here in Delaware County who I've known for many, many years. Someone
22:24with a health care background who cares deeply about this community who we've
22:28worked closely with throughout this process. Ladies and gentlemen, I want to
22:32introduce Dr Monica Taylor, the head of Delaware County Council. Dr Taylor.
22:42Thank you. Thank you, Governor Shapiro for being here today and thank you for
22:46continuing to stand with us in this fight. My name is Dr Monica Taylor,
22:51chair of Delaware County Council and I'm here on behalf of 576,000 residents of
22:58Delaware County, 576,000 people who did not all use Crozier Chester Medical
23:05Center or Taylor Hospital, 576,000 people who did not all know every
23:11detail of health care policy or the inner workings of corporate finance,
23:16but all of whom are victims of private equity and what it did here in Delaware
23:21County.
23:24This is a simple story about greed.
23:27Prospect Medical Holdings came to town, bought Crozier, broke our health care
23:33system and paid themselves hundreds of millions of dollars to do it.
23:39Not long ago, 576,000 people once had six great hospitals to care for their
23:46families and loved ones. Now they have just two.
23:51Yeah.
23:52If there's one thing I want you to understand, it's this. It doesn't have
23:58to be this way.
24:00Private equity has no place in health care.
24:04But let's be clear about something. Private equity doesn't belong anywhere
24:09else either.
24:15Governor Shapiro has been a leader in fighting private equity for more than a
24:19decade.
24:21But when private equity backed cartel came, came to town, destroyed safety net
24:28hospitals and they got rich doing it, something drastic needs to change.
24:34Prospect may have turned their back on our community, but Delaware County
24:38government and our delegation never will. Here in Delco, we've been wrapping
24:44our arms around our brothers and sisters in the Crozier workforce who
24:48need new opportunities.
24:50We've been working around the clock to support patients and residents and to
24:55make sure our other providers can do their best to care for our folks that
25:00needed
25:02in partnership with the governor's team. On Tuesday, we brought more than 200
25:07employers together to support over 1000 job seekers from the former Crozier
25:13staff.
25:14That was just one event, and we're not. We're nowhere near done.
25:19We're going to reimagine health care in Delaware County and build a better
25:24future.
25:25Going forward, we strongly support Governor Shapiro and our Delco
25:30delegation as we all work to rebuild the health care landscape here in
25:36Delaware County and as we fight to protect our communities from private
25:41equity so that what happened here never happens again in Pennsylvania. Thank
25:46you, everyone. And with that, I would like to introduce Senator Carney to
25:51talk a little bit about all the amazing work that our Delco delegation is doing
25:55in Harrisburg.
26:06Good morning.
26:09Thank you, Dr Taylor. Thank you, Peggy. Thank you, Max.
26:13And thank you, Governor Shapiro, for standing with us in this fight and
26:18demonstrating the leadership that we need to pass new laws to protect our
26:22health care system from corporate greed. I want to mention that Senator Amanda
26:27Capaletti has joined us as well. I think the senator felt victim to the poor
26:31traffic conditions in Delaware County, which is part of what we're talking
26:35about.
26:37I've been working for years in Harrisburg on legislation to rein in
26:42corporate abuses in our hospitals and health care facilities. And I got to
26:46say, ever since Governor Shapiro spoke on the problem of private equity in
26:51our health care systems during his budget address in February, the whole
26:55tone of the conversation has changed, and both parties are now taking it more
27:01seriously than ever before. This is good news. That is leadership in action,
27:09and it's the kind of leadership that gets stuff done.
27:13And it's high time to get this legislation done. In the spring of 2022,
27:18when Crozier's sale to Christiana fell apart, the Delaware County delegation
27:23came together to announce a package of legislation to get private equity and
27:27Wall Street profiteers out of our hospitals. We introduced this
27:32legislation again in 2023 with Representative Lisa Borowski, who
27:37steered the bill through an evenly divided House and into the Senate last
27:41year.
27:43Notice it hasn't passed yet.
27:46Now, in this third legislative session, we're closer than ever than getting a
27:50bill to the governor's desk. Rural and urban Pennsylvanians alike have seen
27:55their hospitals closed by private equity, seeing full hospitals converted
28:00to outpatient clinics, seeing the quality of care go down and medical
28:05bills go up. Republicans and Democrats alike know we can't put reform off any
28:11further. It's high time we treat our health care workers and our patients
28:16with the respect, the dignity and the care that they deserve. When private
28:21equity firms see our hospitals, all they see your dollar signs. They see
28:25organizations they can burden with debt. They see real estate they can sell off.
28:30They see health insurers. They can bilk for more cash, and they see state
28:35medical assistant programs. They can extort. They see labor. They can over
28:41work and squeeze. That is the private equity playbook.
28:47But our community health care facilities are not just numbers on some finance
28:51guy's spreadsheets. They're the lifeblood of our community.
28:56Hospitals and other health care facilities aren't just like any other
29:00business. They are institutions of public interest, and it's time we make
29:05it abundantly clear to everyone looking to make a buck off our patients and our
29:09health care heroes. Our bill will allow the Pennsylvania Attorney General to
29:14block health care health care deals that are against the public interest.
29:19When a for profit hospital owner wants to take out an unnecessary loan to pay
29:24themselves dividends, our legislation will let the attorney general call out
29:28their B. S. In court.
29:30When a private equity firm wants to cash in on the real estate of a nursing
29:34home, our legislation will allow the attorney general give him the power to
29:39block it. And whenever firms like Leonard Green and partners want to sell
29:43off their ownership in the croziers of Pennsylvania for pennies and leave our
29:48communities with the tab, our legislation will stop them.
29:53This is America, and most folks don't have a problem with doing good and
29:59doing well. But profits should be earned. They should not be taken,
30:06especially when it comes to our health.
30:09This is the balance that our legislation seeks to restore in our health care
30:14system. I'm eager to get back to Harrisburg, talking to the legislators
30:18about our bill. We've been having great conversations with the attorney
30:22general, David Sunday, and we're gonna get some votes on the board.
30:27Time is now. The time is now to get this done. Thank you.
30:35And I would like to bring up our partner in this representative Lisa
30:38Borowski.
30:39Joe.
30:45Good morning. And thank you, Senator Carney, so much for your trust in me as
30:50a fledgling, fledgling legislator to take this really important legislation
30:55that means so much not only to Delaware County, but to the rest of our
30:58communities across the Commonwealth. Good morning and thank you, Governor
31:02Shapiro, for coming to Delaware County and for recognizing the gravity of this
31:06situation and for all the time and effort you and your administration
31:09dedicated to ensuring access to quality health care for our communities. I
31:15stand here today. Lisa Borowski. I'm the daughter of a physician and a
31:18nurse. I spent 30 years working in health care for what is now Trinity
31:22Health and Jefferson Einstein. But most importantly, 28 years ago, I had my
31:27first son here at Crozer Health and the care and compassion that the staff
31:33showed me as a fledgling mother who had no idea what she was doing will
31:38never be forgotten. So this place means a lot to me, and it is devastating to
31:43stand here in front of a Crozer shuttered Crozer Hospital because of
31:47one thing. Corporate greed. Prospect Health decided endangering the lives of
31:52nearly half a million Children and adults was a good way to generate
31:57personal wealth for a handful of executives and shareholders. Now, 2651
32:04people are out of a job, and hundreds of thousands of Delaware County
32:08residents have to travel 30 minutes or more to access health care. I
32:13represent Riddle Hospital, and that hospital is overwhelmed. The time to
32:18wait in an emergency department at Riddle is exceeding hours, and people
32:25are struggling to get the care that they need. Emergency departments are
32:29bursting at the seams across the county and not just here, but also in
32:33Chester County and Delaware, where people are also being transported and
32:37are our county. Our communities are scrambling to secure E. M. S. Services
32:42as someone who worked in health care for 30 years. In my opinion, for profit
32:47and health care. It's an oxymoron. My legislation with Senator Carney House
32:53Bill 14 60 would grant the attorney general's office more oversight when
32:57private equity or for profit organizations seek a merger or an at
33:02seek a merger or an acquisition of health care system. The Health System
33:07Protection Act will provide the attorney general with the tools needed
33:10to prevent bad actors from entering Pennsylvania's health care system. This
33:15legislation also bans harmful sale lease back agreements. In prospects
33:20case, this was part of a $1.55 billion deal on facilities in three different
33:27states where they sold the Crozier House system land and then required the
33:31hospitals to pay rent on the buildings they had previously owned. Much of that
33:37money from the sale delivered and over $400 million dividend to prospect
33:43owners and shareholders. This is a pivotal moment for us as lawmakers
33:48elected by the people to represent their interests. How we choose to
33:52respond to the crisis private equity firms are inflicting in our health care
33:56system will speak volumes to Pennsylvanians about our courage to do
34:00what is right. And I'm grateful to Governor Shapiro for speaking up and
34:04leading the charge. And it is not just stucco residents who depend on us to
34:09step up. This is happening in communities across the Commonwealth,
34:12creating swaths of barren health care deserts. And my good friend Gina Curry
34:16knows a lot about that. This is our moment to show Pennsylvanians we won't
34:21relent until we've done everything it takes to protect their access to health
34:24care. Circumstances have changed significantly since the House passed
34:28the bill the first time. I am optimistic the Legislature will act
34:32together to get these protections in place before another health system is
34:36allowed to crumble. Thank you. And it's now my honor to introduce my colleague
34:41from the 1 61st representative Leanne Kruger.
34:46Mhm.
34:48Mhm.
34:50So we stand today here in Upland Borough with the city of Chester across
34:54the street
34:57after what we have been fighting against for years finally happened.
35:01Prospect closed our hospitals and we know this didn't happen overnight. My
35:07colleagues and I have been here on the front lines with these nurses and
35:11doctors and paramedics for years fighting prospect or in the paramedic
35:16when they weren't getting the materials they needed to keep them safe
35:20calling when er docs were telling us they had stopped paying the vendor who
35:25picked up the rape kits
35:28calling when the paramedics told us that their apparatus was in the shop
35:33because they had stopped paying the mechanics.
35:37Prospect has been divesting in our health care system for years while
35:41pulling out every bit of profit they could. And we as a delegation and
35:48county council and the local elected that are here today in solidarity with
35:52us have fought every step of the way
35:59side by side by side and yet they seem to have won. But rep Rowski's bill
36:07which we did pass out of the house last session
36:10is slated for a vote the first week of june when we go back to the capital.
36:15And this time we will pass it through the house. Our colleagues will pass it
36:21through the Senate, our governor and hopefully our attorney general will
36:24work together to get that legislation signed into law so that what happened
36:29here in Delaware County will never happen in Pennsylvania again.
36:33Yeah.
36:37And yet we're left with the aftermath in the past few weeks since the closure.
36:42My staff have helped to triage patients to make sure that they landed in a safe
36:47place despite prospect having plans to send them home. We have helped crozier
36:54employees file for unemployment. We have fought with a online system that
37:00doesn't work for our seniors to try to get folks their medical records so that
37:04their surgery could still happen on time. And so we continue to ask the
37:09attorney general who's fighting for us in bankruptcy court in texas and the
37:15judge who is the only person right now who's got the ability to hold prospect
37:19accountable to continue to pay attention to what's happening here on
37:23the ground to do everything they can to claw back the money that we have
37:28invested into this system and to hopefully open a criminal investigation.
37:33So these guys are truly held accountable. Thank you.
37:38And now we'll go back to Governor Shapiro for questions. Thanks. Thank
37:42you.
37:43Are we got time for a few questions on this? If you said that you think that
37:48prospect deserves greater scrutiny, their wealth. Are you supportive of
37:53criminal charges against? That's not my call. That's a question for
37:58Attorney General sunday legal claims against entities. The attorney general
38:02would not bring them against. You could do it. The governor doesn't have the
38:05power to bring criminal charges. The attorney general does or a district
38:09attorney does in our commonwealth or of course our federal partners. Could you
38:13urge and have you urged the attorney general and district attorneys to bring
38:17a criminal claim against prospect? First of all, I'm obviously not going
38:20to get into my private conversations with the attorney general. I should
38:23note that we've worked for months together on this. Our offices have
38:28worked in common purpose to see what we could do to keep the doors open. Uh and
38:34the attorney general has been working with us on this legislation. Um and I
38:38hope that going forward we will not only pass this legislation in order to
38:43stop something like this from happening anywhere else, but that there will be
38:47real accountability in the case of prospect and what they did here at
38:52accountability include criminal charges. That's a question for the
38:55attorney general. Do you support that is a question for the attorney general
39:00jeff.
39:05The bill that was introduced last session was broader and included
39:09nonprofits as well. That would get oversight from the attorney general
39:13half opposed it last year. Obviously didn't pass the Senate. Can you talk a
39:16little bit about the decision to limit it? Let me ask the representative or
39:20senator who's written the bill to comment on that represent Borowski or
39:23Senator Carney.
39:25I'm sorry, what was the question last year? Your bill also included
39:28oversight to the attorney general of nonprofit hospitals. It was just a
39:32broader bill this year. It's just private equity. I'm curious why that
39:37change is made.
39:39Well,
39:42so
39:45we have been working, you know, trying to figure out why it didn't go through
39:49the Senate last year. Um, when we wanted it to, there are, as you can imagine,
39:55a lot of fairly powerful interests that at work here, including the hospital
39:59association who opposed the bill last year. So we've been working very hard to
40:04get to a point where we can get them to neutral. Um, so I will say that the
40:11bill as it stands now is not necessarily the bill we're going to
40:13pass that a lot of these questions are still and in particular the one about
40:17nonprofits and for profits is still very much up in the air. Um, and it's
40:22going to be a question of how we can actually navigate the next few months
40:27politically to get to a point where we can, we can, we can pass
40:32they happen in nonprofits as well. It's not just private equity. Um, would you
40:36prefer that to be in the bill? I understand that if it were up to me,
40:40yes, it would be in the, in the, uh, in the bill. But again, we have to, we
40:45have to figure out the politics of it to try to get to a point where, um, you
40:50know, the very good can't stand in the way of the perfect necessarily. And
40:53sometimes we have to take steps on these things, but that's, that's kind
40:57of where we are.
40:58Governor on the bill, what criteria would you expect the attorney general
41:02to determine?
41:06Well, it's interesting because in the, we've gone back and forth on this as
41:10well. We had originally proposed about 13 or 14 steps to try to define what
41:15the public interest really means because that's an understandable problem
41:20that people could have. People want to understand exactly what the bill is
41:23going to prevent or what it's not. It's been a point of negotiation back and
41:26forth. Um, basically the reason for bringing the attorney general and
41:30instead of the Department of Health on this is that the attorney general has
41:34the tools and they have the personnel who are used to dealing with complex
41:37business arrangements and they can understand kind of where those things
41:41do. But, um, again, the bills are a little fluid right now. And whether
41:45that definition winds up in or gets taken out is something that we're going
41:49to continue to argue about. Governor, this community needs your help right
41:53now. Not only the employees, we appreciate the M. S. But there are
41:56hundreds of thousands of people without care right now without critical
42:00health care. There's been calls for you to take this facility over by eminent
42:05domain. Can't you do something to provide care here? There are four
42:08hospitals gone in three years. We need your help. What can you do beyond
42:13legislation?
42:15We need legislation to ensure this doesn't happen in another community. We
42:20need to invest dollars as I'm here today to announce to continue to
42:24support emergency services. We need to make sure that the employees here have
42:30access to the benefits that they've earned and the prospect of finding new
42:34employment. And we're gonna continue to work as we have been for more than
42:39a year with other surrounding health care institutions in this region and
42:43across the country to see what might be able to come of the institution behind
42:48us to see if there is a possibility to get it reopened to provide health care
42:53in this community. I'm going to continue to work hard to see if we can
42:57get that done hours and hours in hospitals that are half hour 45 minutes
43:03away. This community doesn't have access to be able to get these
43:06hospitals at a critical time when they're having heart attacks or get
43:09shot. I mean, if this happened in Montgomery County, would you be doing
43:13the same thing? Yes. What I'm trying to do is to ensure this doesn't happen
43:18again, that the people who were in that facility get the help that they need,
43:23that we hold folks accountable and that we work hard to see what we can do to
43:26get this hospital reopened and the other hospitals reopened to provide
43:30health care. I talked about how we can't allow this to be a health care
43:34desert. We need to make sure that people continue to have access. When
43:38you make sure that our E. M. S. Are funded to be able to get folks the care
43:42that they need. I'm deeply concerned about this community. I'm deeply
43:46concerned about the rural communities that have suffered at the hands of
43:49private equity. We're gonna continue to do everything in our power to address
43:53it.