On Thursday, lawmakers in Washington turned their attention to the Steward Health Care bankruptcy scandal as patients, doctors and regulators in eight states continue to grapple with the hospital chain’s financially troubled facilities.

The senators wanted to cross-examine Steward Chief Ralph de la Torre at the hearing in the Capitol, but had to make do with verbal attacks on an empty chair. Despite being summoned, de la Torre refused to appear.

The next step would be for lawmakers to charge de la Torre with contempt of court, which could result in fines or prison time for the successful heart surgeon who built Steward into the nation’s largest for-profit hospital chain, raking in hundreds of millions of dollars for himself and his financial partners, private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management and real estate investment trust Medical Properties Trust.