Sanders said de la Torre must answer to the American people for how he managed to rake in hundreds of millions of dollars while Steward Health Care, which operated about 30 hospitals nationwide, filed for bankruptcy in May.

“This is something that is not going to just go away,” Sanders told the Associated Press. “We are going to pursue this doggedly.”

Steward has tried to sell its more than half a dozen Massachusetts hospitals, but received inadequate offers for two other hospitals — Carney Hospital in Boston and Nashoba Valley Medical Center in the town of Ayer — and both were forced to close. A federal bankruptcy court last week approved the sale of Steward’s other Massachusetts hospitals.

“He’s chosen not to show up because he doesn’t want to explain to the American people how horrific his greed has become,” Sanders said. “Tell me about your yacht. Tell me about your fishing boat. I want to hear your reasoning for that. Tell that to the community where employees were laid off while you were making $250 million.”

Sanders said holding de la Torre in contempt of court would require a vote by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, which he chairs, or a vote by the full Senate, whichever measure is taken.

De la Torre’s lawyers have said he will not testify before the committee investigating the Dallas-based hospital company because a federal court order prohibits him from making any statements during ongoing restructuring and settlement efforts.

Sanders said there are many questions de la Torre can still answer.

De la Torre’s lawyers also accused the committee of trying to turn the hearing into “a pseudo-criminal trial, using the time not to gather facts but to condemn Dr. de la Torre in the eyes of public opinion.”

“It is not within this committee’s jurisdiction to make pre-trial findings of alleged criminal misconduct as part of an investigation into Steward’s bankruptcy proceedings, and the fact that its members have already done so smacks of a veiled attempt to circumvent Dr. de la Torre’s constitutional rights,” the lawyers said in a letter to Sanders last week.

De la Torre has not ruled out testifying before the committee at a later date – a suggestion Sanders called a “100 percent delaying tactic.”

Sanders also said the committee has received no indication that de la Torre will change his mind and attend Thursday’s hearing. Nurses who worked at two hospitals owned by Steward in Massachusetts will also testify at the hearing.

“Here’s a guy who is getting fabulously rich while bankrupting hospitals and denying low- and middle-income people the health care they so desperately need,” Sanders said. He said more than a dozen patients have died at Steward hospitals due to understaffing or lack of medical equipment.

“When a hospital closes in a community, especially a low-income community, it’s a disaster. Where do people go? Where is the nearest emergency room?” Sanders added.

The committee’s options include charging de la Torre with criminal contempt of court, which could result in a trial and prison time, or with civil contempt, which would result in fines until he appears. Both would require a vote in the Senate.

De la Torre also declined invitations to testify earlier this year at a hearing in Boston led by Senator Edward Markey, a Democrat from Massachusetts and also a member of the committee.