Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont met with the CEOs of Yale New Haven (Conn.) Health and Los Angeles-based Prospect Medical Holdings in an effort to get a proposed 3-hospital deal back on track and out of the courtroom, The Trumbull Times reported May 23.
Yale New Haven signed a deal in November 2022 to acquire the three Connecticut hospitals for $435 million. But after seeing Prospect suffer a cyberattack in August and discovering that Prospect owes $67 million in taxes and has failed to pay physicians working at the hospitals and vendors, Yale wanted to alter the purchase price, which has not been reached. Yale New Haven is now suing Prospect to get out of the deal.
At the governor's request, Yale New Haven Health CEO Chris O’Connor and Prospect Medical Holdings CEO Von Crockett met at the state capitol on May 22, according to the report. Details of the meeting — which lasted about an hour — are slim, but a spokesperson for the governor said this was the first time the two CEOs were in the same room together, "which we view as a sign of progress."
Officials from Birmingham, Ala.-based Medical Properties Trust were also present, according to the report. Prospect sold the land and buildings of its Connecticut hospitals to Medical Properties Trust and before leasing them back to pay back a $1.12 billion mortgage.
A certificate of need for the sale was approved in March, but if the terms of the deal change, a new application would need to be submitted for approval, according to the report. Yale New Haven Health had sought $80 million in state funding to help facilitate the transaction, but the governor's office has stood firm that "the state is not offering any funding as part of the deal."