Home Care In Prospect, CT

After years of uncertainty regarding the future of the Connecticut hospitals owned by bankrupt operator Prospect Medical Holdings, two of the three facilities could have a new owner by the end of the year.

On Tuesday, Hartford HealthCare, one of Connecticut’s largest health systems, presented its case to the state’s Office of Health Strategy to purchase Manchester Memorial and Rockville General Hospitals. Under the new expedited approval timeline for hospitals in bankruptcy, state officials must issue a decision by Dec. 30.

During the public hearing, Hartford HealthCare CEO Jeffrey Flaks said the health system plans to bring all its expertise, resources and capabilities to Manchester, Rockville and the surrounding towns.

“The robust apparatus of Hartford HealthCare will be brought to these communities to make health care better. That’s why I’m so confident that we have this very unique opportunity to dramatically improve health care that will be here for generations going forward,” Flaks said.

Hartford HealthCare will spend $86.1 million to purchase the facilities and pledged to invest an additional $225.7 million towards capital improvements, like facility and IT upgrades, over the next three years.

Hartford HealthCare also plans to recruit new physicians to the Manchester and Rockville communities, as well as expand access to specialty care, like oncology, inpatient rehabilitation and vascular and orthopedic surgical services, according to the application submitted to the state.

If approved, the deal would serve as the first step towards concluding a lengthy search to find new buyers for Prospect’s Connecticut hospitals — a process that often seemed on the brink of failure.

In 2022, Prospect signed a deal to sell its three Connecticut hospitals — Manchester Memorial, Rockville General and Waterbury — to Yale New Haven Health for $435 million. But the deal was mired in setbacks and litigation.

In August 2023, a cyberattack crippled operations at Prospect’s facilities around the country. In 2024, Yale New Haven Health and Prospect Medical sued and countersued each other over the true value of the hospitals. In January 2025, Prospect filed for bankruptcy and, by the following month, Yale officials said a deal appeared “impossible.”

In September, Yale agreed to pay $45 million to Prospect to end all disputes over the hospitals’ sale.

Hartford HealthCare stepped in and its acquisitions of the Manchester and Rockville facilities could be finalized by the end of the year. Connecticut’s flagship academic medical institution, UConn Health, seems poised to acquire Waterbury Hospital. A judge for the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Northern Texas approved the UConn deal earlier this week, and now the transaction must obtain state approval.

It’s a speedy transition for the three hospitals, whose ownership had languished in uncertainty for years.

While the Yale deal was pending, Lamont and OHS received broad criticism for the lengthy approval process. That led state legislators to approve a measure earlier this year that allows for an expedited timeline for the acquisition of hospitals that have filed for bankruptcy.

Under the emergency certificate of need timeline, OHS must issue a final decision within 60 days from when the application is deemed complete.

In an emailed statement, Lamont’s spokesperson Rob Blanchard said OHS “met all statutory timelines in the Yale-Prospect [certificate of need review]” and that the legal disputes between the two companies illustrate the transaction’s complexity.

“Yale’s decision to file suit against Prospect less than two months after the agreed settlement raised clear concerns about the parties’ readiness to close the deal. The disputes that prolonged the CON process are now evident in the lawsuit, countersuit, and resulting $45 million settlement,” Blanchard stated in emailed comments.

Erosion of services at Rockville

Despite the promise of new ownership for Prospect’s Connecticut hospitals, the formerly private equity-backed operator will leave a lasting imprint on the state’s hospital system — perhaps most notably in the erosion of services at Rockville General.

When Prospect acquired Eastern Connecticut Health Network, which includes Manchester Memorial and Rockville General Hospitals, both facilities were full-service acute care hospitals. Today, Rockville — which serves a geographic region that’s largely rural — functions as a satellite campus of Manchester, with only an emergency room and behavioral health unit.

A spokesperson for Prospect did not respond to a request for comment in time for publication.

Rep. Tammy Nuccio, R-Tolland, lays the blame for the diminishment of the hospital directly with the state.

“That’s OHS’s failure,” Nuccio said. “They allowed this to happen.”

A 2023 investigation by The Connecticut Mirror found that Prospect began cutting services during the early days of the pandemic, eventually shuttering most of Rockville’s inpatient units without obtaining the required state approvals. Records and employee testimony submitted to the state show that officials were aware of the unauthorized cuts going back as far as 2021.

In February 2022, OHS fined Prospect for some of the service cuts at Rockville, but the operator appealed the penalty. The agency ultimately found it did not have substantial evidence to penalize Prospect, and waived the fine.

In October 2024, OHS launched another investigation into the service cuts. In May of this year, Connecticut officials reached a settlement with Prospect Medical Holdings. OHS fined the operator $300,000, but the agreement also allowed Prospect to shutter all services at Rockville aside from the emergency room and behavioral health, officially making the facility a satellite campus of Manchester.

At the time, then-OHS commissioner Deidre Gifford issued a statement saying the agreement “protects critical resources” for patients and families in the area.

“The agreement also holds the Prospect applicants accountable to the community, requiring public notice of past terminations and development of a strategic plan for the consolidated hospital. The plan must be developed with community input and presented to the community in a public forum,” Gifford’s statement read.

Hartford HealthCare has said as of now they don’t expect service cuts at either Manchester or Rockville. But Nuccio said she’s suspicious based on the company’s history with Windham Hospital, which HHC acquired in 2009.

In 2015, Hartford HealthCare announced the conversion of Windham’s critical care unit to what’s known as a progressive care unit, which can’t handle the same complexity of care. Most recently, the company received strong pushback from the local community over the system’s decision to shutter Windham’s labor and delivery unit, which stopped performing births in 2020.

During the hearing on Tuesday, executives with HHC stated that the system improves the quality of care at all of the hospitals that join its system and that they are proud of the work done with former acquisitions. The company’s certificate of need application states that HHC invested hundreds of millions of dollars in facilities it acquired in the past, resulting in drastically improved quality of care for patients.

Tina Varona, a spokesperson for Hartford HealthCare, declined to make Flaks available for an interview after he testified in Tuesday’s hearing, saying he had to leave immediately.

“We are unable to comment outside of the testimony at this time due to the NDA and pending regulatory review,” Varona stated in an email follow-up after the hearing.

Following Tuesday’s hearing, Attorney General William Tong issued a statement saying he expected Hartford HealthCare to maintain services, including labor and delivery, intensive care and behavioral health. But he called on OHS to hold Hartford HealthCare to its promises.

“Expectations must be matched by accountability: Absent other legal impediments, I would urge the Office of Health Strategy to seek firm commitments to continue these vital services,” Tong said.

Vernon mayor Dan Champagne shared Nuccio’s sentiments in holding the state accountable for what happened to Rockville Hospital, particularly for how long officials took to approve the failed 2022 deal with Yale. But, he said, he’s grateful Rockville has not suffered the same fate as Prospect hospitals in Pennsylvania, which had to close because they couldn’t find a viable buyer.

Champagne said he understands skepticism of what an acquisition by a big hospital system could mean for Manchester and Rockville. But for him, Hartford HealthCare’s bid will guard against the most damaging result: closure of the hospitals and the flight of medical professionals from the communities.

“There are a lot of people who say, ‘big systems can sometimes lead to increased prices or closure of services,’” Champagne said. “We need to go back to what we’re facing here. I’m watching other hospital systems close from Prospect. We have an opportunity to keep this open. That’s the most important thing.”

Homeowners along one of the town’s central streets are raising alarms about a proposed extension of the New Haven to Northampton rail trail near their homes, and a state legislator announced Wednesday that she’s siding with them.

Opponents are trying to muster support before the Thursday evening meeting where state transportation department designers will present their proposal to close the nagging Plainville gap in the trail.

“I stand with the residents of Hemingway Street in strong opposition to the current proposed alignment of the Farmington Canal Heritage Trail,” state Rep. Rebecca Martinez said in a statement.

“This plan would place a public path directly through their front yard. This is not a minor right-of-way issue. It’s a fundamental question of respect for people’s homes and voices,” Martinez said. “The residents of Hemingway have said no — and I support them.”

The transportation department and trail advocates are inviting residents to study the maps and sketches that will be presented at the Thursday meeting. A series of design plans have been put forward starting more than 20 years ago, but the Plainville gap has proven to be the most persistent sticking point for the trail in Connecticut.

The DOT said that if the estimated $28 million project moves forward, construction would begin in the spring of 2028 if funding is available, governmental permits are secured and access to some properties is reached. The DOT anticipates federal grants would pay 80% of the costs, with state money covering the rest.

Planners have come up with three options for crossing Plainville, including one route that uses the east side of Washington Street, another that uses the east side of Hemingway Street, and a third that runs through woods.

The Hemingway option doesn’t require obtaining any private property and takes cyclists and pedestrians on a route with little traffic. But it crosses some private driveways and requires a “no parking” rule on one side of the road. Neighbors have been balking on social media, saying that could devalue their homes, make parking more difficult and bring unwanted noise to their neighborhood.

The other options come with concerns, too. Washington Street is heavily used, so the popular path would be running alongside traffic if it’s built there. It, too, crosses some private driveways, and might require obtaining small sections of private property.

The third option through the woods keeps cyclists and pedestrians away from traffic, but puts the path through wetlands. It could require obtaining more private property than either of the other routes, and could entail building a boardwalk to protect the wetlands.

Martinez is urging residents to attend the meeting at 5 p.m. at Plainville High School, saying the DOT has assured her that no decisions are firmly made yet.

“I am a supporter of the Farmington Canal Heritage Trail and believe in its long-term value for Plainville. But we need to come up with a better alternative — one that respects the people who live here,” she said.

The north-south rail trail covers a distance of about 58 miles between New Haven and Suffield, and is the biggest and most popular in the state. But because CSX and previously Pan Am still operate freight trains on a section of the route in Plainville, the trial hasn’t been completed.

UConn Health, Connecticut’s flagship academic medical institution, bid $13 million to purchase Waterbury Hospital from Prospect Medical Holdings, the California-based operator that filed for bankruptcy protection in January.

UCHCFC Waterbury Hospital Corp., a corporation sponsored by UConn Health, will serve as the “stalking horse bidder” for the hospital in the court-supervised sale auction, according to court documents filed Friday morning. The “stalking horse” serves as the first bidder in a bankruptcy auction whose offer serves as the minimum bid.

“We are pleased to have reached this important milestone in our sale process through a stalking horse agreement with UCHCFC Waterbury Health Corp., a Connecticut nonprofit sponsored by UConn Health. We look forward to completing the process efficiently and to the future partnership ahead,” Deborah Weymouth, CEO of Waterbury Health, stated in emailed comments.

The $13 million cash offer includes $4 million for the operating assets and $9 million for the real estate. The state will also assume a limited set of the hospital’s liabilities, bringing the deal’s total value up to $35 million, according to the terms laid out in court documents.

Other bidders can submit offers through November 14. A sale hearing, where the bankruptcy court judge will approve the sale, is scheduled for November 17.

During a press conference on Friday, Gov. Ned Lamont highlighted the effort it took to find a buyer for the struggling hospital.

“We had to work really hard after what Prospect did to that hospital. We’ve got a strong bidder,” Lamont said. “I want people to know Waterbury Hospital is going to thrive under new leadership.”

In a series of unannounced visits over the last two years, state health inspectors found deteriorating conditions at Waterbury Hospital, including a nurse staffing crisis, rusting equipment in operating rooms and alleged patient abuse.

The purchase of Waterbury Hospital by the state is part of a broader plan to expand the footprint of UConn Health and make it more competitive with other academic medical institutions around the country. The state is also in talks to acquire two more private, independent hospitals that are also struggling: Bristol Hospital and Day Kimball Hospital in Putnam.

Prospect originally paid $31.8 million to acquire Waterbury Hospital in 2016. While the state is purchasing Waterbury for less than half of what it was worth almost a decade ago, the facility will require deep investments to address significant quality issues, State Comptroller Sean Scanlon told The Connecticut Mirror last month.

“There are significant capital expenditure needs to maintain what I would say is the level of public health care that our citizens deserve and expect. And, frankly, that’s not possible in the condition that this hospital is in right now,” Scanlon said.

During a special session of the state legislature, scheduled for next week, lawmakers will vote to approve a bonding package to fund capital improvements at Waterbury, Bristol and Day Kimball Hospitals.

If approved by the legislature, the state could borrow as much as $390 million to invest in the hospitals over a five-year period, according to a presentation during an Oct. 3 meeting of the University of Connecticut’s Board of Trustees and the UConn Health Board of Directors. The debt would be added to the “UConn 2000” bonding package, the state’s financing program for capital projects at its flagship university.

UConn Health will also separately invest $31 million in the hospitals over five years, CEO Andrew Agwunobi said.

The funding will cover the purchase of Waterbury Hospital, but the acquisition of Bristol and Day Kimball Hospitals will be handled separately, according to the state comptroller.

Some level of forgiveness for the taxes Prospect owes the state will also be a part of the deal. However, those negotiations are happening separately and not explicitly included in the bid submitted on Friday.

“The tax negotiations are ongoing. We’ll have more to share in the coming days,” Comptroller Scanlon said on Friday.

Court records show that Prospect owes the state $127 million in hospital provider taxes going back more than three years.

Once approved by the judge, any acquisition would have to go through the state’s approval process, overseen by the Office of Health Strategy, known as Certificate of Need. The state would have to approve the deal within 60 days of receiving a completed application, according to the guidelines of the emergency approval process reserved for hospitals that are involved in bankruptcy proceedings.

Waterbury was the last of the Prospect’s three Connecticut hospitals that needed a buyer.

Last month, the bankruptcy court judge approved the sale of the other two Prospect-owned facilities — Manchester Memorial and Rockville General — to Hartford HealthCare for $86.1 million. HHC submitted the sole bid. The transaction is currently under review by the state’s Office of Health Strategy.

UConn Health, Connecticut’s flagship academic medical institution, bid $13 million to purchase Waterbury Hospital from Prospect Medical Holdings, the California-based operator that filed for bankruptcy protection in January.

UCHCFC Waterbury Hospital Corp., a corporation sponsored by UConn Health, will serve as the “stalking horse bidder” for the hospital in the court-supervised sale auction, according to court documents filed Friday morning. The “stalking horse” serves as the first bidder in a bankruptcy auction whose offer serves as the minimum bid.

“We are pleased to have reached this important milestone in our sale process through a stalking horse agreement with UCHCFC Waterbury Health Corp., a Connecticut nonprofit sponsored by UConn Health. We look forward to completing the process efficiently and to the future partnership ahead,” Deborah Weymouth, CEO of Waterbury Health, stated in emailed comments.

The $13 million cash offer includes $4 million for the operating assets and $9 million for the real estate. The state will also assume a limited set of the hospital’s liabilities, bringing the deal’s total value up to $35 million, according to the terms laid out in court documents.

Other bidders can submit offers through November 14. A sale hearing, where the bankruptcy court judge will approve the sale, is scheduled for November 17.

During a press conference on Friday, Gov. Ned Lamont highlighted the effort it took to find a buyer for the struggling hospital.

“We had to work really hard after what Prospect did to that hospital. We’ve got a strong bidder,” Lamont said. “I want people to know Waterbury Hospital is going to thrive under new leadership.”

In a series of unannounced visits over the last two years, state health inspectors found deteriorating conditions at Waterbury Hospital, including a nurse staffing crisis, rusting equipment in operating rooms and alleged patient abuse.

The purchase of Waterbury Hospital by the state is part of a broader plan to expand the footprint of UConn Health and make it more competitive with other academic medical institutions around the country. The state is also in talks to acquire two more private, independent hospitals that are also struggling: Bristol Hospital and Day Kimball Hospital in Putnam.

Prospect originally paid $31.8 million to acquire Waterbury Hospital in 2016. While the state is purchasing Waterbury for less than half of what it was worth almost a decade ago, the facility will require deep investments to address significant quality issues, State Comptroller Sean Scanlon told The Connecticut Mirror last month.

“There are significant capital expenditure needs to maintain what I would say is the level of public health care that our citizens deserve and expect. And, frankly, that’s not possible in the condition that this hospital is in right now,” Scanlon said.

During a special session of the state legislature, scheduled for next week, lawmakers will vote to approve a bonding package to fund capital improvements at Waterbury, Bristol and Day Kimball Hospitals.

If approved by the legislature, the state could borrow as much as $390 million to invest in the hospitals over a five-year period, according to a presentation during an Oct. 3 meeting of the University of Connecticut’s Board of Trustees and the UConn Health Board of Directors. The debt would be added to the “UConn 2000” bonding package, the state’s financing program for capital projects at its flagship university.

UConn Health will also separately invest $31 million in the hospitals over five years, CEO Andrew Agwunobi said.

The funding will cover the purchase of Waterbury Hospital, but the acquisition of Bristol and Day Kimball Hospitals will be handled separately, according to the state comptroller.

Some level of forgiveness for the taxes Prospect owes the state will also be a part of the deal. However, those negotiations are happening separately and not explicitly included in the bid submitted on Friday.

“The tax negotiations are ongoing. We’ll have more to share in the coming days,” Comptroller Scanlon said on Friday.

Court records show that Prospect owes the state $127 million in hospital provider taxes going back more than three years.

Once approved by the judge, any acquisition would have to go through the state’s approval process, overseen by the Office of Health Strategy, known as Certificate of Need. The state would have to approve the deal within 60 days of receiving a completed application, according to the guidelines of the emergency approval process reserved for hospitals that are involved in bankruptcy proceedings.

Waterbury was the last of the Prospect’s three Connecticut hospitals that needed a buyer.

Last month, the bankruptcy court judge approved the sale of the other two Prospect-owned facilities — Manchester Memorial and Rockville General — to Hartford HealthCare for $86.1 million. HHC submitted the sole bid. The transaction is currently under review by the state’s Office of Health Strategy.

Connecticut’s second-largest health system was named the successful bidder in an auction to acquire Manchester Memorial and Rockville General, two Connecticut hospitals owned by bankrupt hospital operator Prospect Medical Holdings, according to court documents filed Saturday.

Prospect Medical Holdings filed for bankruptcy protection in January, and the sale of its hospitals around the country is being overseen by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Northern Texas.

Last month, ECHN Holdings Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Hartford HealthCare, submitted an $86.1 million bid for the two hospitals. Prospect did not receive any additional bids for the hospitals, court records show. The company originally paid $105 million when it purchased the two facilities in 2016.

Tina Varona, a spokesperson for Hartford HealthCare, said the health system looks forward to the “opportunity to stabilize and expand the workforce at these hospitals, provide support to enhance quality and safety, and advance strategic investments in people, programs, technologies, facilities and community partners.”

“Every hospital that has joined Hartford HealthCare has experienced measurable positive results that benefit patients — including across-the-board top safety ratings, improved access to care close to home, leading-edge technology and the recruitment of world-class clinicians,” Varona wrote in an emailed statement.

Prospect Medical Holdings did not respond to a request for comment.

The deal still needs to obtain state approval, known as the “certificate of need,” overseen by the Office of Health Strategy. OHS and the Lamont administration faced criticism over the time required to approve a failed $435 million deal signed in 2022 for Yale New Haven Health to acquire the three Prospect-owned hospitals.

That deal also became mired in legal disputes, with Yale New Haven and Prospect suing and countersuing each other over the true value of the hospitals. The parties recently settled, with Yale New Haven agreeing to pay Prospect $45 million to exit the deal and end all pending litigation.

During the most recent legislative session, lawmakers passed a measure that allows for an expedited timeline for the acquisition of hospitals that have filed for bankruptcy. Under the emergency certificate of need timeline, OHS must issue a final decision within 60 days from when the application is deemed complete, Boyd Jackson, OHS’s director of legislation and regulation, said in an emailed statement.

The acquisition of Manchester Memorial and Rockville General would further expand the footprint of one of Connecticut’s largest health systems.

Hartford HealthCare currently owns seven hospitals across the state, the most of any health system in Connecticut, and earned roughly $6 billion in revenue in 2023. By comparison, Yale New Haven Health had higher revenue in 2023, $6.4 billion, but owns only four hospitals.

The announcement of Hartford HealthCare’s success marks the latest ownership development for Prospect’s three hospitals in Connecticut — Manchester Memorial, Rockville General and Waterbury Hospital.

The state plans to acquire Waterbury Hospital as part of a broader plan to expand its own struggling flagship medical institution, UConn Health. The state is also in talks to acquire two independent hospitals, Day Kimball Hospital in Putnam and Bristol Hospital.

Officials hope the acquisitions will help boost the competitiveness of UConn Health in the world of academic medical institutions, as well as push the health system towards the ultimate goal of achieving financial sustainability for its clinical operations, so that it no longer has to rely on support from the state.

The state is also seeking to borrow $390 million to fund the expansion project. The funding would primarily go towards capital improvement projects at all three hospitals, though it would also support the acquisition of Waterbury Hospital, state Comptroller Sean Scanlon said in a previous interview with the CT Mirror.

On Oct. 3, the University of Connecticut’s Board of Trustees and the UConn Health Board of Directors voted to approve a $13 million bid to acquire Waterbury Hospital. However, the health system had not submitted an offer as of Oct. 20.

Federal funding is gone.

Congress has eliminated all funding for public media.

That means $2.1 million per year that Connecticut Public relied on to deliver you news, information, and entertainment programs you enjoyed is gone.

The future of public media is in your hands.

All donations are appreciated, but we ask in this moment you consider starting a monthly gift as a Sustainer to help replace what’s been lost.

Donate