Hartford HealthCare closed its $86.1 million purchase of two Connecticut cate care hospitals, the 249-bed Manchester Memorial and its 109-bed Rockville campus, plus their related assets, from bankrupt Prospect Medical Holdings on Jan. 1.
The transaction comes after the system spent months securing regulatory and state approvals, which involved commitments to maintain certain services and limit its rate negotiations with payers during the next few years. The most recent of these, an agreement with Connecticut Attorney General William Tong, came on Dec. 29
Hartford HealthCare said it also plans to invest $225.7 million over three years into the hospitals and their communities. These efforts, as highlighted in this week's announcement, include additional hiring, stronger outpatient and ambulatory care services, 24/7 virtual primary care offerings and the reopening of a 30-bed behavioral care unit at Rockville.
“Our goal is simple: to make sure patients can get excellent care close to home,” Jeffrey A. Flaks, president and CEO of Hartford HealthCare, said in Thursday's purchase announcement. “We look forward to working with our new colleagues and the Manchester-area community to improve access, affordability and health outcomes, just as we have done with hospitals across our system.”
Hartford HealthCare also named Adam Steinberg, most recently the vice president of medical affairs at Hartford Hospital, to serve as president of its newly formed Greater Manchester Region that includes Manchester Memorial and the Rockville campus (formerly Rockville General Hospital).
“I appreciate that Hartford Healthcare has stepped up to acquire and restore Manchester Memorial and Rockville General, and to ensure that the patients in those communities may access affordable, high-quality community-based care after years of mismanagement by private equity," Attorney General Tong said in a statement earlier this week. "I believe this transaction will be a net positive for Connecticut, for patients and for providers."
With the acquisition, Hartford Healthcare now owns nine acute care hospitals and runs 2,889 licensed inpatient beds in the state of Connecticut.
The nonprofit system's $86.1 million offer was the sole bid Prospect received for those facilities during its bankruptcy. It came after Prospect settled a legal dispute with Yale New Haven Health, which involved a scuttled nine-figure deal for Manchester Memorial and the Rockville campus plus Waterbury Hospital.
Dec. 11, 2025
Connecticut signs off on Hartford HealthCare's $86.1M acquisition of Prospect hospitals
Connecticut's Office of Health Strategy (OHS) approved on Wednesday Hartford HealthCare's Emergency Certificate of Need application to acquire two hospitals and related assets from the bankrupt Prospect Medical Holdings.
“The expedited decision ensures continuity of care for Eastern Connecticut residents, while imposing specific conditions designed to ensure preservation of healthcare access and quality and control cost growth,” Amy Porter, the state regulator's acting commissioner, said in an announcement. “The OHS staff conducted a rigorous and highly efficient process made possible by the emergency [certificate of need] statute.”
Hartford HealthCare's $86.1 million bid was the only one received for Manchester Memorial and Rockville General, and had previously been accepted by Prospect and green lit by a bankruptcy judge. The facilities had been at the heart of a now-settled legal dispute between bankrupt Prospect Medical Holdings and Yale New Haven Health, which prior to the bankruptcy had offered hundreds of millions more for the locations.
The Connecticut regulator's fast-tracked approval comes with several conditions intended to preserve local care and blunt cost increases that could follow the deal.
On the former, the office is requiring Hartford HealthCare to maintain services at the hospitals for three years or longer, maintain service levels unless a change is approved by the regulator, and also preserve one of the 24/7 EDs included in the deal. The system will also be held to specific timelines for multiple community health needs assessments.
On cost increases, Hartford HealthCare would be required to adopt all existing reimbursement rates with payers, negotiate future rates separately from its broader system and not convert outpatient locations to hospital-based status for at least three years, among other terms.
“This is a positive outcome to an initially challenging situation,” Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont said in a statement. “Ensuring quality services remain both accessible and affordable for our families and communities has always been one of my top priorities, and I am very happy that Hartford HealthCare has made this commitment to Manchester, Vernon and the surrounding communities.”
Oct. 20, 2025
Bankrupt Prospect accepts Hartford HealthCare's $86.1M bid for 2 Conn. hospitals
Hartford HealthCare’s $86.1 million bid for two Prospect Medical Holdings hospitals has been accepted by the bankrupt for-profit system.
The deal for Manchester Memorial and Rockville General, both in Connecticut, still requires a judge’s approval, with a hearing on the issue scheduled for Friday morning.
However, court documents filed Saturday by Prospect showed a Hartford HealthCare subsidiary’s initial “stalking horse” bid to be the only offer received by an Oct. 16 deadline. Objections to the sale are due by Thursday afternoon, and an auction for the assets has now been canceled.
Hartford HealthCare, in a Monday statement given to press, confirmed its winning bid and said it is prepared to bolster the facilities, conditions for which had triggered a lawsuit from a previous interested acquirer.
“We look forward to the opportunity to stabilize and expand the workforce at these hospitals, provide support to enhance quality and safety, and advance strategic investments in people, programs, technologies, facilities and community partners,” Hartford HealthCare’s statement said.
Nonprofit Hartford HealthCare currently runs seven acute care hospitals and 500 total locations in its home state of Connecticut as well as nearby Massachusetts and Rhode Island. The system reported $6.5 billion of operating revenue during its 2024 fiscal year and employed more than 44,000 people.
The hospitals it’s set to acquire have been at the heart of a legal dispute between Prospect and Yale New Haven Health, which had sought to acquire the pair plus Waterbury Hospital for $435 million. Yale New Haven Health sought to back out of the deal in 2024, citing concerns with the hospitals’ conditions, but its lawsuit was frozen when Prospect declared Chapter 11 near the top of this year.
Prospect initially asked the court to hold Yale New Haven Health to the original deal as an “involuntary stalking horse” during a bankruptcy auction and if it refused to hold the system to damages included under their original deal regarding the terms of a default. However, the pair hashed out a $45 million settlement last month, not long after Prospect received Hartford HealthCare’s $86.1 million bid.
The third hospital, Waterbury, is being eyed by UConn Health, which reportedly authorized a bid of up to $13 million. All three of the hospitals have remained open throughout the bankruptcy proceedings.
The news in Connecticut comes not long after Prospect shared word of successful bids for the last two hospitals of Pennsylvania’s Crozer Health, a system it was forced to close earlier this year after failing to find a new operator despite multiple lifeline funding extensions. Two other hospitals previously part of Crozer had been shuttered in 2022.
Specifically, Prospect told the court this month that Crozer-Chester Medical Center had received a $10 million offer from Chariot Allaire Partners and Springfield Hospital had received a $3 million offer from Restorative Health Foundation and Syan Investments, with backup bidders available for both facilities. Should a sale fall through, Prospect has been authorized by the bankruptcy judge to immediately abandon both facilities.