Markey, Sanders, Blumenthal Introduce Legislation to Protect Health Systems from Predatory Real Estate Investment Trust Deals

Bill Text (PDF)

Washington (October 8, 2025) - Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), top Democrat on the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Subcommittee on Primary Health and Retirement Security, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Ranking Member on the HELP Committee, and Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) today introduced the Stop Medical Profiteering and Theft (MPT) Act, legislation that would put regulatory guardrails in place to protect health systems from predatory leaseback deals with real estate investment trusts (REITs).

Last year, Steward Health Care declared bankruptcy after being tied to unsustainable rents charged by a REIT, Medical Properties Trust. Many REIT leases include automatic, expensive rent increases that can lead to health systems diverting resources away from patient care to rent payments or, in some cases, bankruptcy.

"The Steward Health Care crisis showed what happens when corporations put profits over patients. We must put guardrails in place to ensure health care systems, providers, and patients are protected from financial mismanagement driven by corporate greed," said Senator Markey. "My Stop MPT Act will prohibit health systems from entering deals with real estate investment trusts that weaken their financial security or risk public health."

"The Stop Medical Profiteering and Theft Act cracks down on private equity and corporate greed that puts profits over patients-working to increase transparency and improve care. Millions of Americans across the country are facing a health care crisis that threatens their ability to access affordable, quality health care, and this legislation prioritizes their health and safety and enacts critical guardrails to protect patients, providers, and communities," said Senator Blumenthal.

The Stop MPT Act would address predatory REIT investments in hospitals and health care systems. Specifically, the bill would:

1. Prohibit the entry of a health system into a lease or sale agreement with a REIT that could weaken the financial status of the health system or place public health at risk;
2. Allow HHS to review all lease agreements to determine whether the agreements would lead to a long term weakened financial status of health system; and
3. Close tax loopholes for REITs for rental income from health care properties.

"The Stop Medical Profiteering and Theft Act is an important step toward addressing the extractive sale-leaseback practices that have contributed to major recent healthcare bankruptcies and hospital closures. Extractive real estate practices that contribute to harmful impacts on patients and reduced access to care for entire communities should have no place in healthcare," said Mary Bugbee, Research & Campaign Director, Private Equity Stakeholder Project.

"Private equity firms have snatched up critical parts of our health care system and stripped them for parts, spinning valuable land off to REITs at great public cost," said Aditi Sen, managing director for research and campaigns at Americans for Financial Reform. "Hospitals and nursing homes have gone under, patients have died, and workers have lost their livelihoods -- as was the case with MPT and the Steward hospital crisis. With this legislation, health systems will be prohibited from pursuing these damaging tactics of financial engineering, more resources will go to patient and community care, and hospitals will be less prone to private equity takeovers."

"The Stop Medical Profiteering and Theft Act is an important step toward bringing an end to the rampant abuses in our health care system," said Eagan Kemp, Health Care Policy Advocate for Public Citizen. "The time has come to put patients ahead of profit by closing tax loopholes that are subject to abuse and to ensure the Department of Health and Human Services is adequately overseeing health care real estate transactions."

Steward Health Care declared bankruptcy in May 2024 following gross financial mismanagement that included a predatory leaseback deal with Medical Properties Trust. This deal crippled the hospital system and led to the closure of five hospitals across the country, including in Massachusetts.

In September 2024, Senator Markey unveiled his report, "The Steward Health Care Report: How Corporate Greed Hurt Patients, Health Workers, and Communities." The report spotlighted patient and worker experiences, hospital quality data, and information on hospital closures in Massachusetts and around the country, to document the devastating impacts of Steward's mismanagement. That same month, the Senate voted unanimously to refer Steward Health CEO Ralph de la Torre for criminal contempt of Congress for failing to respond to a subpoena issued by the Senate HELP Committee. In September 2025, Senator Markey wrote a letter to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi urging enforcement of the Senate's criminal contempt referral of Dr. de la Torre.

The bill is endorsed by Private Equity Stakeholder Project, Americans for Financial Reform, Public Citizen, and the American Federation of Teachers.

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