Steward Health Care seeks bankruptcy protections

After months of uncertainty about its future, the nation’s largest private, for-profit hospital chain has filed for bankruptcy in Texas.

Dallas-based Steward Health Care filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Monday, saying it will move to restructure its debt under court supervision and keep running its hospitals across the U.S. including eight in Massachusetts as it does so.

in-possession" status from its landlord, Medical Properties Trust, "for initial funding of $75 million and up to an additional $225 million," the company said in a statement announcing the decision.

Steward operates more than 30 hospitals in a handful of states, and employs tens of thousands of workers, including 16,000 in Massachusetts, according to their unions. 

In its bankruptcy filing, Steward estimated its creditors number more than 100,000, and its liabilities range from $1 billion-$10 billion. The company estimated its assets in the same range.

Steward, in its statement, blamed government reimbursement rates, increasing labor costs and inflation for its financial difficulties, as well as lingering impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Flanked by health care officials, union leaders and the state's attorney general Monday morning, Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey placed the blame for Steward's bankruptcy squarely on the shoulders of company leaders.