Two major hospital systems in New York and Connecticut settled with their states' attorneys general an antitrust investigation related to the proposed merger of Northwell Health and Nuvance Health. This puts the February-announced deal nearer to conclusion.

New York Attorney General Letitia James and Connecticut Attorney General William Tong finalized an agreement with Northwell- the state’s largest healthcare provider-and Nuvance operation which seeks to provide hospital services across Western Connecticut, throughout eastern New York (west of the Hudson River), and other parts of these two states.

The nonprofit organizations announced on February 28 that they would merge, subject to regulatory clearance.

Under the treaty provisions that the two systems earlier agreed on, combined system will continue and expand maternity services at Sharon Hospital in Connecticut; additionally, it will spend more than $200 million to rebuild Nuvance 's IT infrastructure and independently set reimbursement rates in both states.

“Accessible and affordable maternity care is fundamental to Western Connecticut,” Mr. Tong said Monday. “This agreement secures continued healthcare access for Connecticut families and I will work tirelessly as I always have protecting them from the negative impacts of healthcare consolidation.”

It also bars the merged entity from engaging in all-or-nothing and anti-steering as well as anti-tiering practices in network agreements, aligning with Connecticut's new statute.

The evidence reflects that many western Connecticut patients in fact do not see neighboring hospitals as realistic alternatives to Nuvance’s Sharon Hospital. As a result any additional providers during the crucial period before this new cooperative can be gotten on board (as it takes time to get new partners), let alone these regular fellows now training there who are studying under clinical professors of which each needs an instructor himself even without considering students like these who will never become themselves A university! [“The real test will be during daylight hours,” one source remarked.]

With the approval of Connecticut’s Office of Health Strategy BSE still pending, this pair would create a healthcare system by the numbers(Numbers: 14,500 providers, 28 hospitals, $19. 6 billion annual revenue).

The merger is intended to make Nuvance more stable than it has been; the organization has faced financial difficulty since its creation in 2019 by merging Health Quest and Western Connecticut Health Network.

Attorneys general have said that while there may be anti-competitive concerns about the merger later, current advantages such as keeping Nuvance hospital facilities open outweigh potential future anticompetitive behavior. Be all reasonable people agree.

The agreement lasts for five years in New York and Connecticut and Northwell is obliged to make annual compliance reports to the attorney general of each state.