Connecticut officials are investigating service cuts at Rockville General Hospital in Vernon that may have violated state laws, according to an Oct. 17 letter sent by the Office of Health Strategy to Prospect CT CEO Deborah Weymouth.
Rockville is one of three hospitals in Connecticut owned by Los Angeles-based Prospect Medical Holdings, along with Manchester Memorial and Waterbury Hospital. The facilities have been at the center of a long-awaited pending sale to Yale New Haven Health that’s mired in legal disputes and has at times seemed on the brink of collapse.
Questions of unauthorized service cuts come amid a barrage of revelations regarding the diminished financial and operational state of the hospitals. In just the past month, Prospect was hit with federal liens for failure to pay into the pension plan for its Connecticut employees. Reports released also documented rusting equipment in operating rooms at Waterbury Hospital and delayed payments to physicians at Manchester Memorial Hospital.
According to the notice, the state determined that Prospect may have ceased providing medical/surgical and inpatient psychiatric services without obtaining permission from the state, known as a certificate of need. In March 2020, the state granted Rockville, and other hospitals, a waiver to halt certain services in order to free up capacity to treat COVID patients. The waiver expired on July 21, 2021, at which point all services should have resumed.
“[It] appears that in actuality RGH ceased to provide all medical/surgical services around this time, did not seek a waiver for the cessation of these other services, and to date has yet to restore these other services. In addition, it also appears that RGH may have ceased providing all inpatient psychiatric services (both adolescent and adult) in or around June 2020 and has yet to restore those services as well,” OHS staff attorney Craig Sullivan stated in the notice.
A spokesperson with Eastern Connecticut Health Network, the health system that includes Manchester Memorial and Rockville General hospitals, did not respond to a request for comment.
The state’s inquiry comes a year after an investigation published by The Connecticut Mirror found that Prospect began eliminating services with the arrival of the pandemic, when the hospital received permission from the state to halt surgical services.
Records and employee testimony submitted to the state going back as far as 2021 show that the hospital took the cuts further, shuttering most of Rockville’s inpatient units. When the story was published in October 2023, longtime employees, union leaders and state lawmakers from the area said services remained extremely limited.
When asked why the state waited a year to launch an inquiry, OHS commissioner Deidre Gifford stated in an email that several factors influenced the timing, including the active certificate of need application for the acquisition by Yale New Haven and the crippling of operations at Prospect hospitals following the August 2023 cyberattack. The state said it used the agreed settlement reached between Yale and Prospect to address service concerns at Rockville.
“Taking compliance action while simultaneously negotiating a resolution to the same issues would not have been productive,” Gifford said.
“The agreed settlement reached in March 2024 included extensive provisions to address ongoing concerns at Rockville General Hospital and ensure continued community access to all required services, either at Rockville General Hospital or Manchester Memorial Hospital. The transaction has been tied up in litigation for several months … Since a resolution to the Prospect/Yale New Haven Health dispute has not been arrived at, and a court date is not set until April of 2025, OHS is pursuing further action.”
Prospect has until Nov. 8 to submit responses to the state.
“The inquiry process allows OHS to determine if and to what degree Rockville General Hospital may have ceased service delivery in several areas without state approval. We will be able to further assess appropriate action pending receipt of the facility’s response,” Gifford said in an emailed response to questions.
Termination of services by a hospital without state approval can result in civil penalties of up to $1,000 per day. If OHS pursues civil penalties, Prospect would have the opportunity to request a hearing.