As 2026 begins, Hartford HealthCare takes over the financially struggling Manchester Memorial and Rockville General hospitals, in what its chief executive officer describes as a “generational moment.”
As of Jan. 1, the state’s second-largest healthcare system has officially acquired the two hospitals formerly owned by the bankrupt California-based for-profit company Prospect Medical Holdings Inc.
The state Office of Health Strategy (OHS) on Dec. 10 approved Hartford HealthCare’s emergency Certificate of Need application (E-CON) to acquire the hospitals for $86.1 million and to make capital investments of nearly $227 million over the next three years.
OHS is reviewing a separate E-CON application from UConn Health to acquire Prospect Medical’s third facility in the state, Waterbury Hospital, for $13 million plus a capital expenditure of $212 million.
State Attorney General William Tong also recently announced an agreement with Hartford HealthCare that he says will limit cost increases and protect physician independence as the health system takes over the Manchester and Rockville hospitals.
Hartford HealthCare’s acquisition of the two hospitals follows a decision by the state’s largest healthcare system, Yale New Haven Health, to back out of its $435 million deal proposed in 2022 to acquire all three Prospect hospitals in the state. After dueling lawsuits were filed over its efforts to cancel the deal, YNHH agreed in September to pay Prospect $45 million to settle the dispute.
YNHH said the decision to end the deal was based on Prospect’s “disinvestment and mismanagement” of the three hospitals.
Prospect’s hospitals had suffered a significant financial hit following a cyberattack in August 2023 that crippled all three facilities. YNHH said Prospect also had failed to pay some vendors for years and owed millions more to the state and the city of Waterbury in unpaid taxes.
Prospect filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in January 2025.
Its state hospitals each posted losses in fiscal 2023, the most recent information available. Manchester Memorial posted a loss of nearly $19 million, Rockville General a loss of $9.7 million and Waterbury Hospital a loss of $26.2 million.
During an interview on Tuesday, two days before Hartford HealthCare officially acquired the Manchester and Rockville hospitals, CEO Jeff Flaks and Dr. Adam Steinberg, the newly appointed president of the system’s Greater Manchester region, sat for an interview with Hartford Business Journal about both the challenges and the opportunities presented by the acquisition.
Synergies
Flaks said the two newly acquired hospitals fit well into Hartford HealthCare’s system, which includes Hartford Hospital and six other acute-care facilities.
“First of all, I think this is a generational moment, an opportunity to make health care better in the Greater Manchester region,” Flaks said. “We have a tremendous amount to offer, with the opportunities to bring our physicians, our capabilities, our institutes and our services” to the region.
He added that “the synergies are tremendous, and the outcome of that is going to be beyond any level of capabilities and services than ever before.”
According to its E-CON application, Hartford HealthCare intends to invest millions of dollars into various infrastructure and service upgrades at the two hospitals.
That will include installing the Epic electronic hospital records system at both hospitals, aligning them with others in the system, while also conducting a community health needs assessment in the region, one of the conditions it agreed to as part of OHS’ approval.
Part of that assessment will be to determine exactly what services will be offered at the Vernon facility. After acquiring Rockville General in 2016, Prospect later consolidated it under Manchester Memorial Hospital’s license, creating a second “campus” for Manchester Memorial.
Rockville General also discontinued “multiple patient services between fiscal 2019 and 2023,” OHS states in its most recent annual report on the financial status of the state’s acute care hospitals.
Local care
That and other issues have resulted in Manchester and Rockville General patients seeking care at Hartford Hospital due to a lack of trust and confidence in local care, Hartford HealthCare states in its E-CON.
“Fundamentally, this is about keeping health care local,” Flaks said. “It’s about bringing our capabilities and resources locally.”
Hartford HealthCare’s logistics center, access center, and quality and safety division all will “immediately support” the two newly acquired hospitals, he said.
Flaks also said the two hospitals’ emergency departments and inpatient beds — Manchester is licensed for 249 beds, Rockville General for 109 — are “dramatically underutilized today,” and that the plan is to bring in new technology and new providers to reverse that trend.
Steinberg — who has been with Hartford HealthCare for more than 20 years, most recently as vice president of medical affairs in the Hartford region — cautioned that it is too soon to say exactly how the services offered at each facility will change.
“I think the commitment right now … really is to better understand the needs of the community, what we need to serve, and what is best for both” hospitals, he said. “I think it would be very short-sighted to come in and be able to answer that question directly right now.”
Staff support
Flaks expressed no concerns about the millions of dollars his health system has committed to spending to improve the two hospitals.
Both Flaks and Steinberg said the health system is also committed to supporting the 2,500 staff members at both hospitals.
Flaks described them as “amazingly devoted, talented, incredible people,” adding that they worked “under really difficult circumstances to stay committed to that community.”
He also said Hartford HealthCare is required to honor the existing agreements with the four labor unions that serve the hospitals, and that he looks “forward to having really strong and productive working relationships” with them.
Steinberg agreed. “The pride in this workforce at Manchester and the Rockville campus, it’s exceptional. It’s unparalleled,” he said. “You can’t find it, and it matches so well with who we are at Hartford HealthCare.”
Been there, done that
Flaks noted that this is not the first time Hartford HealthCare has acquired struggling hospitals.
Charlotte Hungerford Hospital in Torrington, acquired in 2018, and St. Vincent’s Hospital in Bridgeport, acquired in 2019, each struggled financially and in quality of service before Hartford HealthCare took over, he said.
“When we brought St. Vincent’s into Hartford HealthCare in 2019, they were a D in LeapFrog,” Flaks said, referring to the national nonprofit watchdog organization that grades healthcare quality. “They’re now an A from LeapFrog.”
Similarly, when it acquired Charlotte Hungerford, Hartford HealthCare invested $72 million in its facilities, added 22 locations in Litchfield County, and improved its LeapFrog grade from a C to an A.
“We have a track record,” Flaks said. “We know we have a very clear understanding of and have great alignment on how to do this.”
Steinberg said he has watched Hartford HealthCare grow over his career “from one hospital with a loose association with another to a very robust, well-respected healthcare delivery system nationally, right here at home in Connecticut.”
He also praised Flaks for not only prioritizing quality and safety, but also for promoting a culture of controlling and decreasing costs.
“There’s no reason that the Manchester region will not have the same results that every other hospital that’s come on board the Hartford HealthCare has achieved,” Steinberg said.
