The Steward Health Care bankruptcy has shaken up the healthcare industry. The largest privately owned, for-profit health system in the U.S., announced after filing for bankruptcy last month that it would sell all of its 31 hospitals in auction sales.

Eight of those hospitals are in Massachusetts. The situation has set the state's government to seek ways to prevent REITs from performing future sales leasebacks, in which they purchase a hospital's campus and then lease the property back to them.

The Steward situation caused significant caused a scathing response from Governor Maura Healey. "I do not want to lose sight of the fact that the situation stems from and is rooted in greed, mismanagement, and lack of transparency on the part of Steward leadership in Dallas, Texas," she said. "I have been clear about that, and I will continue to be clear about that. It is a situation that should never have happened, and we will be working together to ensure that there are steps taken to make sure that this does not happen again."