Dive Brief:
- Eastern Connecticut Health Network (ECHN) recently asked four big nonprofit hospital systems in CT for takeover proposals for Manchester Memorial and Rockville General Hospitals.
- As of Monday's proposal deadline, ECHN reported there was strong interest from the in-state nonprofits and two out-of-state for-profit chains.
- Last December, Tenet Healthcare had plans to acquire ECHN; the deal fell through when the CT attorney general issued proposed conditions that there be no changes in staffing or services for five years.
Dive Insight:
Although it seems unusual that out-of-state for-profits would be interested in acquiring ECHN after the deal with Tenet fell through, it seems ECHN has a lot to bring to the table. Although its two hospitals are not very strong financially, they offer a low-cost value-based option, something we may see more of in the coming years. In an attempt to stay ahead of the trend, ECHN has staff members who help patients seeking elective surgery determine how much they will be paying out-of-pocket. "We have to get ourselves to a place where we can be price-competitive and price-transparent," Dennis McConville, ECHN's senior vice president and chief strategy officer told the Hartford Courant. "We're not organized in a way that we can publish the prices that we have yet. … But we're going to have to find a way."