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Office of Health Strategy, Nuvance Health and Northwell Health Reach Agreed Settlement for Hospital Affiliation

HARTFORD, CT) - The Office of Health Strategy has reached an Agreed Settlement with Nuvance Health and Northwell Health (Docket No. 24-32717-CON) approving the proposed affiliation of the two health systems. Under the agreement, ownership of Danbury, (including the New Milford campus), Norwalk and Sharon Hospitals will be transferred to Northwell Health, a 21-hospital non-profit integrated care delivery system in New York. The two systems filed a Certificate of Need application on May 31, 2024 and entered settlement negotiations on January 31, 2025 reaching an agreement just 66 days later.

"I'm proud that through dedicated collaboration, a fair agreement has been reached with Northwell Health that benefits patients and providers, while strengthening and stabilizing healthcare throughout Western Connecticut," said Governor Lamont. "My administration is appreciative to Dr. Murphy and Michael Dowling, their respective teams, Dr. Gifford and the OHS Certificate of Need team for getting this agreement done in an efficient manner that is ultimately in the best interest of Connecticut residents."

“This agreement reflects the commitment of all parties to act in the interest of healthcare consumers and providers throughout Western Connecticut,” said Deidre Gifford, MD, MPH, commissioner. “Northwell Health will strengthen the capacity of these hospitals to provide accessible, affordable, high-quality care in the diverse urban, suburban and rural communities they serve.”

The agreement sets conditions safeguarding the interests of Connecticut patients and providers such as price constraints tied in part to the State’s cost growth benchmark. As part of this affiliation, Northwell will invest at least $1 billion across the Nuvance hospitals in Connecticut and New York over the next five years, and this agreement requires annual reports detailing Northwell's progress made toward completion of those investments. The agreement also prohibits any real estate sale leaseback transactions for at least five years. Specific conditions include:

  • Constraining growth in commercial prices so negotiated rates do not exceed the average of the state’s Cost Growth Benchmark Target and the Consumer Price Index for Medical Care in New England (CPI-U Medical)
  • Adoption of Northwell’s more generous financial assistance policies at Nuvance hospitals
  • Maintaining all inpatient clinical services and recognizing all collective bargaining agreements
  • Developing strategic plans to retain and enhance health care services at each of the hospitals, including physician recruitment and resource commitments for clinical service programming
  • Promoting advanced alternative payment models with payers to improve population health, reduce the rate of unnecessary cost or utilization growth, improve access to primary care, address social determinants of health

The settlement also aligns with and incorporates the agreement of assurances Connecticut Attorney General William Tong and New York Attorney General Letitia James reached with the systems in August, including the preservation of labor and delivery services at Sharon Hospital for the next five years. Four New York hospitals currently operated by Nuvance will also join the Northwell system.

The docket number for this matter is Docket No. 24-32717-CON. To find documents in the CON portal related to this docket, type “32717” in the docket search field.   

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Wendy Fuchs, MBA, FACHE

Director of Communications

Wendy.Fuchs@ct.gov

860-969-7228

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