Bad Boys of Bankruptcy: S3E6: Turning Care Into Commerce: The Collapse of Steward Healthcare

In this live episode of Bad Boys of Bankruptcy, Judge Elizabeth Gunn is joined by Sam Maizel and Andrew Troop to break down the Steward Healthcare Chapter 11, a case driven as much by personality as by financial engineering. At the center is Dr. Ralph de la Torre, a surgeon turned executive who helped build a hospital empire through private equity, aggressive expansion, and a controversial strategy of selling the land beneath hospitals while taking billions in long-term lease obligations. The result: a system burdened with debt, billions in rent, and allegations of value extraction, all while critical healthcare services were at risk. This episode explores how one “bad boy” and a high-risk financial model collided with the realities of healthcare, leaving courts, regulators, and communities to deal with the fallout.