The subpoena de la Torre rejected was a rare one issued in July by the Senate committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP). The HELP committee, chaired by Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), aimed to compel de la Torre to testify on allegations that while he and other executives reaped millions from the hospital system, individual facilities were put under such dire financial strain that health care workers were forced to practice “third-world medicine,” and outsiders described Steward leadership as “healthcare terrorists.”

“We wanted Dr. de la Torre to explain to us how it could happen that at least 15 patients at hospitals owned by his company died as a result of a lack of medical equipment or staffing shortages and why at least 2,000 other patients were put in ‘immediate peril’ according to federal regulators,” Sanders said in prepared remarks prior to Wednesday’s full Senate vote. Steward has operated more than 30 hospitals across eight states.

“But, perhaps most importantly,” Sanders said, the committee wanted to know how “Dr. de la Torre and the companies he owned were able to receive at least $250 million in total compensation over the past four years,” while health care workers, patients, and communities suffered. Some Steward hospitals have downsized or been shuttered, leading to hundreds of layoffs and a lack of access to medical care in affected communities.