Steward Health Care System, one of the state’s largest hospital operators, has declined to submit basic financial information to Massachusetts officials for the second year in a row.
The state’s Center for Health Information and Analysis collects financial data from all of the state’s hospitals and their parent companies. But officials at the agency, known as CHIA, said they have not received Steward’s filings for 2014 or 2015.
At issue are the for-profit company’s audited financial statements, which include details such as profit and loss, revenue, and cash flow. CHIA collects this information as part of its role to monitor the health of the state’s health care industry and keep consumers and policy makers informed.
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The agency has fined Steward $37,000 for failing to file the information on time. Steward said there are “questions as to the legality of the fines” and has not paid them.
“CHIA is charged with monitoring the financial health of Massachusetts hospitals,” agency spokesman Andrew Jackmauh said in a statement. “To do so requires access to complete and verified system-wide financial information. Failure to provide this information frustrates a complete and accurate public reporting on the health of these important community service providers.”
Steward spokesman Jeff Hall said the company has been in touch with CHIA. He said there is “certain confidential information that in some cases we are not able to legally disclose.”
“There is an agreement in principle on the format in which CHIA would like to receive the statements and we continue to work in good faith with the agency on the details of the filing,” Hall said in a statement.
Steward, backed by the New York private equity investment firm Cerberus Capital Management, has been operating since 2010, when it bought several struggling hospitals formerly run by the Archdiocese of Boston. Its network now has nine hospitals, including St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center and Carney Hospital in Boston.
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In 2014, Steward missed the deadline for submitting financial statements for 2013. It eventually turned in those statements, almost a year late, and after redacting portions that the company said were proprietary.
Steward has not submitted detailed financial statements for the past two years to CHIA, but it has shared some information with Attorney General Maura Healey’s office. A December report from Healey’s office showed that Steward’s losses have been mounting. The company lost $75 million on operations in 2014, up from $55 million in 2013, and $22 million in 2012.
Healey’s report credited the company for maintaining important medical services, especially for elderly and low-income patients, but raised concerns about Steward’s financial stability. Steward closed Quincy Medical Center at the end of 2014, citing a shortage of patients and financial losses there.
Two other for-profit companies, Kindred Healthcare Inc. and Tenet Healthcare Corp., also missed this year’s April deadline for submitting 2015 financial statements to CHIA. But the agency said it received the documents Friday afternoon. That was after the Globe sent inquiries to both companies earlier in the week. Kindred attributed the delay to an issue with the electronic filing system.
Priyanka Dayal McCluskey can be reached at priyanka.mccluskey@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @priyanka_dayal.