Dive Brief:
- Prospect Medical Holdings, a for-profit LA-based healthcare company, is planning to buy Waterbury Hospital in Connecticut.
- This is Waterbury's third potential buyer in the last five years.
- A previous merger fell through over concerns about reproductive services, and Tenet Healthcare Corporation recently backed out of a deal to buy the hospital after the state Office of Health Care Access proposed significant conditions on Tenet's plans to convert the non-profit into a for-profit institution.
Dive Insight:
As of now, 28 of Connecticut's 29 hospitals are nonprofit, as a previous CT law made it almost impossible for for-profits to operate in the state. The law was changed late last year in response to the Tenet deal. However, the new law added additional regulatory oversight for potential for-profit deals, which is what caused the Tenet deal to fall through.
On Tuesday, Waterbury released a document explaining, among other things, why it thinks Prospect will be successful in acquiring Waterbury when others have tried and failed. "Prospect has a strong reputation as an ethical and responsible healthcare company, and maintains positive, collaborative relationships with its physicians, employees, labor unions and payers, as well as with the communities served by its hospitals," the document said. "We all believe that Prospect can get a deal done because of their experience in Rhode Island, another highly-regulated state, and their collaborative approach to working with physicians, medical groups, the community and organized labor."