It happened again.

With a U.S. Bankruptcy Court hearing on the schedule for Thursday afternoon and no sign as Wednesday evening approached of movement on the deals that Gov. Maura Healey announced Friday, Steward Health Care again delayed the crucial court date on hospital sales in Massachusetts.

"The Sale Hearing for the Debtors’ Hospitals in Arkansas, Louisiana, and Massachusetts, previously scheduled for August 22, 2024 at 1:00 p.m. (Central Time), is hereby adjourned to August 27, 2024 at 1:00 p.m. (Central Time)," the company wrote in a filing Wednesday.

Though her administration had previously said it would be up to Steward to announce the progress of its bankruptcy-compelled selloff, Healey announced Friday that deals were in place to sell St. Elizabeth's Medical Center in Brighton and Good Samaritan Medical Center in Brockton to Boston Medical Center, for Lawrence General Hospital to buy the Holy Family Hospital facilities in Methuen and Haverhill, and for Lifespan to take over Morton Hospital in Taunton and Saint Anne's Hospital in Fall River, as long as the deals were finalized and approved (and in the case of St. Elizabeth's, after the state seizes the land).

A Steward lawyer said Friday the company hoped to be signing asset purchase agreements for those hospitals by Monday and was looking to present them to a U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge for approval at Thursday's now-postponed hearing. The company has so far only declined to comment on the deals that Healey announced.

Massachusetts state government struck a deal with Steward to provide $30 million in advance Medicaid payments to keep hospitals here afloat through August, but the Steward lawyer suggested Friday that there could be the need for "emergency relief related to the hospitals in Massachusetts." He said "we believe we've secured funding, if necessary to close those purchases, at least on the operating costs through September."

Another delay seemed inevitable, especially when Steward on Tuesday afternoon announced in a filing that there will be an emergency hearing related to the sale of one of its Florida hospitals at the same time that the sale hearing was supposed to be held for the Massachusetts hospitals.