Dive Brief:
- Tenet Healthcare Corporation on Thursday withdrew its application to purchase five hospitals in Connecticut after the state Office of Health Care Access proposed onerous conditions on Tenet's plans to convert non-profit Waterbury Hospital into a for-profit institution. To be exact: OHCA set 47 conditions affecting operations and the office of the attorney general set 21 conditions impacting finances.
- "The extensive list of proposed conditions to be imposed on the Waterbury Hospital transaction, which is only the first of four transactions for which we've made applications, has led us to conclude that the approach to regulatory oversight in Connecticut would not enable Tenet to operate the hospitals successfully for the benefit of all stakeholders," Tenet said in a statement.
- Tenet's withdrawal is a huge blow to the struggling Waterbury Hospital and will likely have political repercussions Gov. Dannel P. Malloy's administration—the hospital is a major source of employment.
Dive Insight:
Tenet has been trying for two years to enter the Connecticut market, so this is a shift in strategy that has much bigger implications that just Waterbury. Connecticut's hospital market is with one exception comprised entirely of non-profit institutions, so Tenet's entry would have been a major change to the state healthcare landscape.
While hospital employee unions and a citizen advocacy group had opposed the for-profit takeover of Waterbury, the hospital itself had been working with Tenet as its best chance at future solvency. Waterbury president and CEO Darlene Stromstad expressed dismay, but no surprise at Tenet's withdrawal:
"It was always a possibility that obstacles being placed in the way of this transaction might deter Tenet from moving forward with hospitals in Connecticut," Stromstad said in a statement. "However, the conditions placed on the Waterbury transaction were clearly one obstacle too many."