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.