The owner of three financially struggling Connecticut hospitals has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Prospect Medical Holdings announced the move Saturday saying it’s to expedite the sale of hospitals in Rhode Island.
The owner of three financially struggling Connecticut hospitals has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Prospect Medical Holdings announced the move Saturday saying it’s to expedite the sale of hospitals in Rhode Island.
Could places like Waterbury Hospital see changes in the future? It’s something local and state leaders are thinking about after Prospect Medical Holdings announced it filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy Saturday. Prospect owns three hospitals including Waterbury Hospital, Manchester Memorial Hospital, and Rockville General Hospital in Vernon.
“It's a very serious concern to everybody who is getting services from the hospital,” Sen. Saud Anwar, (D)-South Windsor, said.
In a statement, the hospital operator says it’s filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy to “…proceed on a strategic pathway to realign its organizational focus outside of California” and expedite the sale of two hospitals in Rhode Island. Prospect says it’s hospitals will remain open and its “patient care and services will continue uninterrupted.” State lawmakers like Senator Jeffrey Gordon (D-Woodstock) say this move wasn’t surprising.
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“I've been warning about it, including trying to see what we could do over the past year especially to facilitate a deal for Yale to come in,” Sen. Gordon
This news could affect a pending sale of prospect’s three Connecticut-owned hospitals to Yale New Haven Health that’s been tied up in court. Governor Ned Lamont in a statement saying in part: “We will continue to hold Prospect accountable to provide quality care to the communities that rely on these institutions.” Sen. Anwar say legislators will work in a bipartisan fashion to monitor any developments.
“We will make sure that the people in the community are going to get the care, the highest level of care that they can get,” he said.
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Waterbury Mayor Paul Pernerewski says he believes it could help get new ownership for Waterbury Hospital.
“I think it really is good news for us to create some stability for the transfer to take place which has been lacking quite frankly in the last probably year or so,” he said.
“This is not unexpected,” Vernon Mayor Dan Champagne said Sunday. “We have been following developments at ECHN and Prospect closely and have known for some time that they were behind in paying suppliers, doctors and others, both locally and across the nation. I have been in touch with the governor’s office and we will continue to work with him and others. The key thing for our communities to know is that Eastern Connecticut Health Network will continue to care for patients and provide the medical care our communities have come to rely on. Patient care is still No. 1 for ECHN.”
Sen. Gordon says he’s working with colleagues like Sen. Anwar on a push for the Put Patients Over Profits Act to keep private equity firms like prospect being involved in healthcare to prevent situations like this.
“To really make certain that we are protecting the health care in our hospitals everywhere in this state because we can't let this happen again,” he said.
