For-profit Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare Corp. has plans to purchase Waterbury (Conn.) Hospital as well as St. Mary's Hospital in Waterbury, but proposed conditions for the purchase may stand in the way, according to a Hartford Courant report.
Waterbury, a mid-sized community and teaching hospital, has faced financial struggles and anticipates it will begin losing $10 million annually next year, according to the report. Tenet also has a pending application to purchase nonprofit St. Mary's, a Catholic, community teaching hospital, which has too has struggled, according to the report.
But Tenet asserts that the state Department of Public Health's Office of Health Care Access' proposed conditions ultimately mean it is not able to operate Waterbury and St. Mary's "as components of an integrated system," according to the report.
It will show the Federal Trade Commission that owning St. Mary's and Waterbury would not create a monopoly by "demonstrating that a rationalization of services between the two institutions is required to generate significant efficiencies and cost savings to ensure the long-term success in the delivery of healthcare in Waterbury," Tenet said in the report.
However, one of the proposed rules – barring Tenet from getting rid of duplicative services- makes that an impossible task, "and thus makes it doubtful that the transaction will be permitted to proceed," Collin P. Baron, counsel to Tenet, said in the report.
Tenet also plans to purchase Bristol (Conn.) Hospital, Manchester (Conn.) Memorial Hospital and Rockville General Hospital in Vernon, Conn., according to the report.
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