Over 100 people gathered Tuesday morning at Waterbury Hospital to celebrate the hospital’s acquisition by the state’s flagship medical institution, UConn Health. The announcement marks the culmination of a years-long saga to find a new owner for the facility, which has, at times, seemed on the brink of closure.
Elected officials and executives called the moment a “restart” for the hospital. A few also took the opportunity to slam the hospital’s current owner — the bankrupt, formerly private equity-backed hospital operator, Prospect Medical Holdings.
“We have finally reached a point where we are going to invest in people over profits. Goodbye Prospect,” UConn Health Board Chair John Driscoll said, eliciting cheers and applause from the crowd.
In 2022, Prospect signed a deal to sell Waterbury Hospital, along with its two other Connecticut facilities, Manchester Memorial and Rockville General, to Yale New Haven Health for $435 million. But the deal was mired in setbacks and litigation.
In August 2023, a cyberattack crippled operations at Prospect’s facilities around the country. In 2024, Yale New Haven Health and Prospect Medical sued and countersued each other over the true value of the hospitals. In January 2025, Prospect filed for bankruptcy and, by the following month, Yale officials said a deal appeared “impossible.”
Over the last six months, state officials have been hard at work to negotiate Waterbury Hospital’s purchase by UConn Health. The deal would save Waterbury Hospital from closure and help support Gov. Ned Lamont’s goal to improve the financial sustainability of UConn Health, state and hospital officials say.
“It wasn’t easy. It took a little navigating to get this done over the last six months,” Lamont said. “But this is a good thing for Waterbury, a really good thing for Waterbury Hospital, and it’s a good thing for the UConn Health system generally.”
The acquisition is structured as a “public-private partnership.” Waterbury Hospital will be part of the UConn Health network, but remain private.
Last week, the state submitted a $13 million bid to purchase the hospital, including $4 million for the operating assets and $9 million for the real estate. The state will also assume a limited set of the hospital’s liabilities, bringing the deal’s total value up to $35 million, according to the terms laid out in court documents.
Prospect originally paid $31.8 million to acquire Waterbury Hospital in 2016. While the state is purchasing Waterbury for less than half of what it was worth almost a decade ago, the facility will require deep investments to address significant quality issues.
During a special session of the state legislature this week, lawmakers will vote to approve $390 million in bonding over a five-year period to support capital investments in Waterbury, as well as Bristol Hospital and Day Kimball Hospital in Putnam, which the state is also in talks to acquire.
Some level of forgiveness for the taxes Prospect owes the state will also be a part of the deal. Court records show that Prospect owes the state $127 million in hospital provider taxes going back more than three years. However, those negotiations are happening separately and not explicitly included in the bid submitted last week.
The bonding package on the agenda for the special session beginning on Wednesday has widespread bipartisan support, Comptroller Sean Scanlon said.
“Every single legislative caucus leader has supported this project, and you’re going to see a massive, overwhelming bipartisan vote in favor of this on Wednesday and Thursday. Democrats and Republicans all understand this,” Scanlon said.
Joe Polletta, R-Watertown, said he would vote ‘yes’ on the bonding package, and thanked Lamont and Scanlon for their commitment to finding a solution.
“A lot of folks ask: What’s going to happen to the hospital? What’s going to happen to my job? What does it mean for health care in this area?” Polletta said. “This is going to solve that problem.”
Hospital employees, who were overjoyed by the announcement, said investments in the hospital should go towards infrastructure and technology upgrades, as well as supplies and staff.
“I’m tired of looking for IV pumps, working cardiac monitors, a chair to sit in. I mean, literally something that simple,” Marilyn Anthony, a registered nurse who has worked at the hospital for over 20 years, said. “And staff. I want staff.”
Anthony, who is 65, said she put off her own retirement so she could stay on board after the state’s acquisition to help rebuild the hospital’s operations.
Lamont said another goal of the partnership is for the expanded UConn Health network to help provide broader access to high quality, low-cost care. State employee and retiree health plans will incentivize participants to go to UConn Health and Waterbury Hospital, where, Lamont said, “you get the very best value there is.”
When asked whether he supported a public option in Connecticut, which Senate President Pro Tem Martin M. Looney, D-New Haven, called for during a press conference Monday, Lamont joked that he had “concepts of a plan.”
“I refer to it as the ‘Connecticut option,’” Lamont said. “One step at a time, but obviously we’d like to incentivize people and give them an opportunity to play into this preferred network. And state employees would be a big piece of that.”