Whether you’re a health insurer negotiating rates or a competing medical provider trying to maintain market position in a quickly consolidating healthcare industry, Jeffrey Flaks holds power.
Named CEO of Hartford HealthCare (HHC) last year, Flaks oversees a $4-billion statewide health system that today claims more than one of every four operating dollars collected by all Connecticut health systems combined.
While he’s new to the corner office, Flaks played a key part in helping build out the HHC system, climbing the ranks for years into bigger leadership roles, where he was groomed as a successor to former CEO Elliot Joseph, who retired last year.
HHC is the second largest health system in Connecticut, behind Yale New Haven Health, and its Connecticut market share has grown of late to within just a few percentage points of the New Haven-based system.
As the state’s healthcare sector further concentrates, HHC, with Flaks at the helm, is almost certain to continue to be an acquiring force.
First, HHC and its fellow systems must get through the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.
HHC has been front-and-center in the response to the outbreak. Hartford Hospital was among the first hospitals in Connecticut to launch drive-up testing, the health system has held daily coronavirus press briefings since March, and Flaks was one of three health-system CEOs that Lamont selected to advise him on the ongoing crisis.