An infusion of money and resources await Manchester Memorial and Rockville General Hospitals after health giant Hartford HealthCare purchased them from the private equity company Prospect Medical Holdings days ago.
Hartford HealthCare plans to invest approximately $300 million into Manchester Memorial Hospital and its Rockville campus to build a health care ecosystem that includes recruiting new providers, implementing an electronic record system, and bringing specialists and urgent care centers to the region, according to officials from the health care system.
“We have the potential to bring the resources and the capabilities of Hartford HealthCare into these communities and will make health care more accessible, more affordable, improve health equity and most importantly dramatically improve quality and safety,” said Jeffrey A. Flaks, president and chief executive officer of Hartford HealthCare in an interview with the Courant. “We are bringing in new technology, new services and we are bringing in new capabilities.”
The health care system completed the purchase of Manchester Memorial Hospital on Jan. 1. The closing follows the state approval of the purchase of the hospital on Dec. 10 from the state Office of Health Strategy.
Hartford HealthCare was named the sole bidder to purchase Manchester Memorial including the Rockville campus from Prospect Medical Holdings for $86.1 million.
Prospect has long faced financial challenges — from delayed payments for physicians and vendors to health care provider shortages — and state and federal officials say that the company has maximized profits at the expense of patient care. Prospect Medical filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy this past January and bankruptcy court proceedings are occurring in the Northern District of Texas Dallas Division.
Dr. Adam Steinberg, Hartford HealthCare president of the greater Manchester region, said there has been minimal investment in the Rockville and Manchester hospitals for many years.
Jennifer Lewis, an ED crisis clinician, center, talks with Adam Steinberg, Hartford HealthCare vice president of medical affairs, left, and Jeff Flaks, Hartford HealthCare president and CEO, as Manchester Memorial Hospital and the Rockville campus officially join Hartford HealthCare on Monday, Jan. 5, 2026. (Aaron Flaum/Hartford Courant)
He explained this will change with Hartford HealthCare.
“We are going to make that investment focused on the patient and the care prioritizing the quality,” he said. “I have invested in quality throughout my career and safety of our patients so we can rebuild and garner the trust of our communities.”
Steinberg said one of the first priorities is to stabilize the platform of the hospitals with a new electronic medical system, referring to the cyberattack that occurred in 2023 crippling services at Manchester Memorial Hospital, Rockville General Hospital and Waterbury Hospital. He said he is hopeful that the system will be up and running in the coming months and fully coordinated with the entire health system.
Health care costs
Attorney General William Tong reached an agreement on Dec. 29 with Hartford HealthCare to help protect against “rising health care costs and ensure professional freedom for doctors to choose where they work,” according to the Attorney General’s office.
The agreement resolves an antitrust review by the attorney general’s office triggered by the state’s ‘notice of material change’ statute, according to Tong’s office.
The statute requires the attorney general “to review certain health care transactions, including hospital and physician practice mergers and other transactions for potential antitrust and anticompetitive concerns to protect access to high quality and affordable health care,” according to the attorney general’s office.
The agreement limits cost increases that Hartford HealthCare can impose at Manchester and Rockville for a period of two years, according to the agreement.
It also waives noncompete clauses in physician contracts to enable physicians to move to other “jobs within 90 days should they choose to do so,” according to the attorney general’s office. Further, “physicians who choose to shift to other hospital systems or physician practices will maintain privileges at Manchester and Rockville under the agreement,” according to a release from Tong’s office.
“I believe this transaction will be a net positive for Connecticut, for patients and for providers,” Tong said in a statement. “But health care consolidation is concerning, for its potential to raise costs and reduce choice for us all. This agreement seeks to balance the need for stable, new ownership at Manchester Memorial and Rockville General while ensuring that costs remain affordable and physician careers are protected.”
The new sign at Hartford HealthCare Manchester Memorial Hospital on Monday, Jan. 5, 2026. (Aaron Flaum/Hartford Courant)
Tong said he appreciated that Hartford HealthCare had stepped up to acquire and restore Manchester and Rockville General to ensure “that the patients in those communities may access affordable high-quality community-based care after years of mismanagement by private equity.”
Gov. Ned Lamont echoed similar sentiments in a statement, adding that “this approved agreement also strikes an important balance by establishing meaningful patient protections, including limits on price increases, and represents good news for patients and for the overall strength of Connecticut health care system.”
Flaks said a major component of Hartford HealthCare is the focus on patient care coordination, adding that 42% of surgeries are not done under a hospital setting but within the community, reducing costs.
“This year we are going to see 750,000 people in urgent care centers who were previously seen as Level 1 or Level 2 emergency visits in the emergency departments,” he said. “We are moving care to the lowest-cost setting. We are actively coordinating care so we can manage the total cost of care. By building primary care services that will be expanded by adding these different types of services in locations, we will be able to ensure the care is in the right location for the highest quality and being done more affordably.”
State Sen. Saud Anwar, co-chair of the state’s public health community, said that he believes Hartford HealthCare will bring more quality health care to the community.
“This is a moment of relief and excitement,” Anwar said. “There was a lot of uncertainty and they were working under difficult circumstances to have Hartford HealthCare join in with their expertise and resources and stability, which would allow this health care system to get the right investments and have the opportunity to thrive and provide the best care to the communities they serve.”
Anwar said the agreement the attorney general made with Hartford HealthCare is a step in the right direction.
“There are challenges with the cost of health care as well but we have to look at it globally,” he said. “The reduction or the control of the cost of health care has not necessarily shown the results in reducing the costs for the consumer because anybody who is insured sees this every day, that their premiums keep going up, the coverage keep decreasing and the bonuses for the insurance industry CEOs and executives keep going up as well and the dividends for the stockholders go up. But it is on the backs of the people who have bought the insurance who are having to pay all of that without improving the coverage.”
AFT Connecticut Vice President for Healthcare Bill Garrity, RN, said in a statement that “our primary message continues to be focused on building strength for the caregivers at both Manchester Memorial and Rockville General Hospitals.
“The health care workers at these facilities have weathered years of instability during the Prospect Medical Holdings’ bankruptcy process,” Garrity continued. “Our goal is to ensure they are empowered to advocate effectively for themselves and for the patients they serve. We welcome any agreement that empowers the Office of the Attorney General to have their backs. The oversight provisions in this deal—particularly those regarding service preservation and price transparency — are essential tools, but they are most effective when the frontline staff have a seat at the table.”
Vernon Mayor Daniel Champagne said his biggest concern he has shared with Hartford HealthCare is making sure that patients do not have to foot the costs, as they do now, if they need to be transferred out of Rockville for further emergency care. He said Hartford HealthCare has been open to the idea.
Community care
Flaks said there is a significant number of people in Manchester that travel for health care and Hartford HealthCare hopes to change that by bringing health care into the community, as it has in other cities and towns. Hartford HealthCare spans more than 500 locations across 185 towns and cities, according to information on the health care system.
“We are going to bring more services that don’t exist today into the community so people don’t have to leave the community and go for more expensive, less coordinated health care when it can be done locally,” Flaks said.
Similar to other Hartford HealthCare models, Steinberg said the health system will bring high level specialists to the Manchester region.
“What this is going to allow us to do is to have people be able to attain that care near their home and not needing to travel for that high level of care,” Steinberg said.
Manchester Mayor Jay Moran said Hartford HealthCare is focused on a community-based approach to health care.
“They want to be part of the community,” he said. “They want to be part of helping and fundraising. They want to be part of the Chamber of Commerce. They want to be part of the local nonprofits in supporting things.”
Emmanuel Rivera of Sign Pro hangs a new Hartford HealthCare Cancer Center sign in the front lobby in Manchester as Manchester Memorial Hospital and the Rockville campus officially join Hartford HealthCare on Monday, Jan. 5, 2026. (Aaron Flaum/Hartford Courant)
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Emmanuel Rivera of Sign Pro hangs a new Hartford HealthCare Cancer Center sign in the front lobby in Manchester as Manchester Memorial Hospital and the Rockville campus officially join Hartford HealthCare on Monday, Jan. 5, 2026. (Aaron Flaum/Hartford Courant)
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Making change in hospital systems
Flaks said Hartford HealthCare has turned around depressed hospital systems including St. Vincent’s Medical Center in Bridgeport and Charlotte Hungerford Hospital.
He said when Hartford HealthCare acquired St. Vincent’s in 2019 it had a D rating for patient safety from the Leapfrog Group, a national patient safety watchdog group.
The Leapfrog group rates all general hospitals with a letter grade based on their ability to “protect patients from medical errors, accidents, injuries and infections,” according to the Leapfrog Group.
Now, he said, it has had an “A” rating for several consecutive years.
“There are more physicians in the community,” he said. “There are more specialists. There are more programs. We have grown the workforce and to me that is what we build: an ecosystem within Hartford HealthCare.”
At Charlotte Hungerford Hospital, Flaks said the hospital moved from a “C” Leapfrog rating to an “A” rating.
“We added 22 new locations within their communities,” he said. “We added urgent care centers. We recruited a significant number of physicians. We have been recognized by Leap Frog as having the second most A’s by any health care system in America.”
Costs of Care and The Leapfrog Group recently announced that Flaks had been awarded the Steven Schroeder Award for Outstanding Healthcare CEO.