State regulators to hold public hearing on Nuvance Health-Northwell merger

Hartford Business Journal – Monday, November 4, 2024
By David Krechevsky

The state Office of Health Strategy (OHS) said it has scheduled a public hearing on Wednesday on the proposed transfer of ownership of Nuvance Health’s Connecticut hospitals to New York-based Northwell Health.

Nuvance, which has dual headquarters in Danbury and New York, announced in February that it had agreed to merge with Northwell to form a two-state healthcare organization.

Nuvance Health Connecticut operates Danbury, Norwalk and Sharon hospitals, and provides physician, ambulatory care, home care and related health services throughout western Connecticut.

Northwell, which is headquartered in Hyde Park, is New York’s largest healthcare provider with 21 hospitals, about 900 outpatient facilities and more than 12,000 affiliated physicians. It has 85,000 employees.

OHS said its health systems planning unit, which administers the certificate of need (CON) program, will conduct the hearing. State law requires a CON for healthcare-related acquisitions and consolidations.

The public hearing is scheduled for Nov. 6 at 9 a.m. and will be held in Plaza North, Hearing Room B, at the Department of Administrative Services, 450 Columbus Blvd., in Hartford. It will also be held virtually via a Zoom conference call. You can join the meeting here.

Anyone planning to attend in person must submit their name to OHS by 4 p.m. on Nov. 5 so the information can be provided to security, OHS said. This includes, but is not limited to, the applicants’ witnesses and attorneys, elected and appointed officials and other members of the public, it said. Anyone whose name is not submitted ahead of time may be denied access to the parking garage and building. Names should be emailed to Faye Fentis at Faye.Fentis@ct.gov.

In June, OHS reported it had received more than two dozen letters supporting the proposed merger. The 26 letters were all dated between May 6-28 and all said the proposed deal is in the best interest of the region and state.

In August, Nuvance Health reported a net loss of $46 million for the first nine months of its fiscal year ended June 30, down from a $65.5 million net loss for the same period a year earlier. It was the third straight year Nuvance had reported a net loss.

Also in August, the state Attorney General’s office announced an agreement to preserve labor and delivery services at Sharon Hospital. Attorney General William Tong said the deal also resolved his antitrust investigation into the proposed affiliation between the two hospital systems and would “strengthen access to local healthcare” in the western part of the state.

The docket number for this CON application is 32717.

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