Rhode Island
Revolving Door, Hospital Edition: McKee’s Former Health Secretary Will Run State-Backstopped CharterCARE—and Neronha Flags Ethics
Correction (Oct 16): An earlier update said the revised plan was due Sept. 15; per the AG’s Sept. 25 letter, it was due Oct. 2.
What happened
On Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2026, the board of CharterCARE Health of Rhode Island, the nonprofit running Roger Williams Medical Center and Our Lady of Fatima Hospital, announced that CEO Jeffrey Liebman will retire Nov. 1. It named Richard Charest as his successor. Charest has been Gov. Dan McKee’s Secretary of Health and Human Services (EOHHS) since 2023, and before that he was director of BHDDH. He is still the sitting EOHHS secretary. According to Rhode Island Current, he initially sought to retire from state government in July but reversed course and stayed on at McKee’s request. He submitted his resignation on Oct. 14, the same day CharterCARE announced his hiring. His last day in state service is Oct. 31, and he starts at CharterCARE on Nov. 1.
The state already has money riding on these hospitals. In February, McKee signed a law creating an $18 million backstop from the state’s supplemental rainy-day fund to secure the sale of Roger Williams and Fatima out of Prospect Medical’s bankruptcy. It can be tapped only if debt payments on roughly $87 million in bonds can’t be made. GoLocal reports that Charest “played a material role in negotiating the state’s finance deal with CharterCARE.” CharterCARE left bankruptcy six months ago. Its finances are under review by Attorney General Peter Neronha, and its board chair acknowledges “short-term cash flow pressures.”
Neronha’s statement on the leadership change: “We hope the Board has undertaken a diligent and thorough vetting process in selecting their next leader. We do note that given his current position at EOHHS, there may be some ethical considerations that would be most appropriate for the ethics commission to address.” A CharterCARE spokesperson said Charest will seek an advisory opinion from the Ethics Commission. Board chair Ben Mingle said the board found Charest “uniquely qualified over other candidates.” GoLocal also notes that Charest’s state financial disclosure lists a consulting business, 180 Degree Business Solution, LLC.
Update (Oct 15)
Rhode Island Current (Nancy Lavin, Oct. 15) adds context. Last November, Charest secretly approached Prime Healthcare, his former employer, about buying Roger Williams and Fatima as a backup buyer, with the blessing of McKee’s office. At the time, The Centurion Foundation already had conditional approval to buy the hospitals. Ben Mingle, Centurion’s CEO and now CharterCARE’s board president, “blasted state officials for undermining the deal already in place,” Rhode Island Current reports. Eleven months later, Mingle’s board hired Charest. CharterCARE did not answer Rhode Island Current’s questions about how many other candidates the board considered.
Rhode Island Current reports that the Ethics Commission has received no requests for advisory opinions about Charest’s move. On the revolving-door clause, John Marion, executive director of Common Cause Rhode Island, said: “He pretty clearly would be prohibited from interaction with EOHHS for a period of one year.”
Contract talks with 1,200 unionized hospital workers are entering a seventh month. Rhode Island Current reports that the United Nurses and Allied Professionals (UNAP) could issue a strike notice Friday if no deal is reached. The owners submitted their first strategic plan on Sept. 15. In a Sept. 25 letter, Neronha’s office rejected it and ordered a revised plan “by no later than Friday, October 2, 2026.” A spokesperson told Rhode Island Current the revised plan remains under review. Condition 17(c) of the sale approval says the AG’s review and approval “shall not take more than thirty (30) days.” Thirty days from Oct. 2 is about Nov. 1, the day Charest is set to start as CEO.
Original reporting
Read the underlying sources:
Governor’s Office — Governor McKee Announces Retirement of Secretary Richard Charest (Apr. 10, 2026)
WPRI — McKee signs off on $18M backstop for Roger Williams, Fatima sale (Feb. 2026)
Virtue Forge commentary
This is how Rhode Island works. The state puts taxpayer money behind a struggling hospital system, and months later the sitting cabinet secretary who sat across the table resigns to become its CEO. Charest may well be qualified; turning around a bankrupt hospital (Landmark) is real experience. But public trust depends on officials who negotiate for taxpayers not later working for the other side of that deal. When the official who protected the public’s position goes to work for the counterparty, taxpayers are left asking whose interests were being served at the table.
Neronha deserves credit for saying the quiet part publicly instead of waving it through. The Ethics Commission should rule quickly and in public, and the board should release what vetting it actually did. If CharterCARE needs the state’s goodwill, the state’s backstop, and the state’s former health chief all at once, that is a hospital dependent on government, not a market turnaround. Virtue Forge has covered this before: Block’s warning about unverified turnaround math, and Neronha’s receivership watch.
What to watch: whether Charest actually requests an Ethics Commission advisory opinion (the commission meets Oct. 20), any further AG action on CharterCARE’s revised plan, the nurses’ contract talks, and whether the $18 million reserve is ever tapped.