FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Joe O’Leary | Joe.OLeary@cga.ct.gov | 508-479-4969

March 2, 2026

Today, the Public Health Committee advanced a legislative proposal seeking to provide an alternative approach to fight the opioid crisis and addiction by providing overdose prevention centers in communities across the state.

A priority for State Senator Saud Anwar (D-South Windsor), Senate Chair of the Public Health Committee, the proposal seeks to meet people experiencing addiction where they are, creating a pilot program that installs several centers seeking to save lives and connect individuals with health services. The bill passed by a 20-12 vote.

Senate Bill 195 would create a pilot program for up to four overdose prevention centers in Connecticut, which would be staffed by licensed health care providers to provide aid, access to test strips and connections to treatment for individuals entering the centers. Individuals would have access to visit the overdose prevention centers in the process of using substances; they are stocked with opioid antagonist drugs and other resources to improve safety and encourage treatment for those struggling.

These centers allow individuals with substance use disorder to be in a controlled and monitored environment, with staff trained to prevent overdoses, provide testing materials to ensure substances are not tainted and provide referrals to individuals seeking treatment for substance use or other mental health issues.

“Overdose deaths have declined in recent years, but that’s progress that can just as easily be erased as built upon,” said Sen. Anwar. “We still see more than two residents on average die each day from an overdose, and each death is a parent, child, friend, sibling and loved one. Every death leaves holes in the lives of those who loved them, and every one we can prevent can change lives. These centers offer an opportunity to address the opioid epidemic from a more humanistic perspective and I know they can and will save lives if we can finally deliver on their promise of a new, better approach to help those struggling.”

The centers, used sporadically in the United States and more common overseas, are known to save lives, with no known deaths occurring within them. They’re also known to reduce spread of infectious diseases, provide social connections to reduce stigma of substance use and encourage access to treatment and improve local safety.

If made law, the centers would be funded from private sources. In addition to the pilot program, it would also create an advisory committee tasked with developing recommendations on the future use and regulations that such centers would utilize in the future.

Sen. Anwar has been a champion for the concept for years, seeking to ensure the state can expand its fight against the opioid crisis that still kills nearly 1,000 Connecticut residents per year.

The legislation was previously included, then removed, from health care legislation that became law in 2025 and was introduced as a concept in years prior. Families of those who have died from overdoses, individuals in recovery from substance use disorder and families of those struggling with the condition have testified in support in recent years.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Joe O’Leary | Joe.OLeary@cga.ct.gov | 508-479-4969

March 2, 2026

The Public Health Committee today voted to advance legislation seeking to place additional controls on private equity ownership and management of health care entities in Connecticut, specifically taking action against a mechanism used to derive profits out of properties following past mismanagement in the state.

Senate Bill 196, “An Act Concerning Hospital Sale-Leaseback Agreements And Attestations Concerning Lack Of Private Equity Control Of The Hospital And Control Of Or Interference With The Professional Judgment And Clinical Decisions Of Certain Health Care Providers,” which passed the Public Health Committee by a vote of 30-2, would:

• Prohibit hospitals from entering into ‘sale-leaseback agreements.’ Sale-leaseback agreements are a term for when a hospital sells its land to a private investor for a quick cash infusion, but then rents its property back from them on a monthly basis at whatever price the investor wants. 
• Require annual reports from hospitals to confirm with the state Department of Public Health that the private equity group controls the hospital’s finances, but that the private group does not influence any hospital policy, including the amount of time a doctor can spend with a patient, evaluate a patients, how patients are triaged in emergency rooms, whether the patients should be discharged, and what diagnostic codes are entered into the patient’s medical records. 

“Private equity’s presence in Connecticut hospitals and health care, regarding Prospect, worsened patient outcomes and weakened the resources offered to entire communities,” said State Senator Saud Anwar (D-South Windsor), Senate Chair of the Public Health Committee. “While I’m confident new ownership will infuse new life into those hospitals, those years set a negative precedent our state cannot afford to continue.

Private equity in Connecticut health care drew significant headlines in recent years with Prospect Medical Holdings’ ownership of Manchester Memorial Hospital, Rockville General Hospital and Waterbury Hospital. The private equity firm drew public ire for underfunding and poor quality in those institutions, including multiple reports of immediate jeopardy conditions in the hospitals with potentially attributable patient deaths and declines in overall quality of care. A sale-leaseback of the land the hospitals sit on led to profits for Prospect but financially harmed the hospitals before Prospect’s eventual bankruptcy and sale of the properties.

When more than one in five for-profit hospitals in the United States are owned by private equity, it’s a pressing concern – especially with further studies by the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health determining Medicare patients at private equity firms see 25% more complications, 40% more bloodstream infections and 27% more patient falls, while hospitals purchased by private equity see 27% increases in income, largely due to increased charges.