Why Hartford HealthCare’s CEO is bucking the status quo

Becker’s Hospital Review – Wednesday, May 13, 2026
By Laura Dyrda

Jeffrey Flaks, president and CEO of Hartford (Conn.) HealthCare, has spent 22 years at the system watching the industry talk itself out of change. He has seen the headwinds used as excuses, the risks of going first cited as reasons to wait, and the status quo defended by people who knew it wasn’t working. He is not interested in any of that anymore.

Hartford HealthCare recently launched Patient GPT, built in partnership with AI company K Health, rolling it out system-wide after an initial pilot. The tool is designed to answer clinical questions, navigate patients to the right care, and strip out administrative friction — available around the clock, no provider interaction required. Mr. Flaks called it a game changer, though he reached for the iPhone as a frame of reference: the first version was nothing like what it would become, but someone had to create version 1.0.

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