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October 24, 2019

Why CT’s top healthcare rivals joined forces on cancer care

Photo | Hartford HealthCare Hartford HealthCare CEO Jeffrey Flaks

Over the past five years or so, Connecticut’s two largest healthcare systems have played a game of competitive chess, with each expanding into the other’s historic turf through a series of partnerships and acquisitions.

Yale New Haven Health (YNHH) forged an oncology partnership with St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center -- Hartford HealthCare’s (HHC) crosstown rival -- back in 2015. It also explored a proposed merger with Connecticut Children’s Medical Center, located directly next to HHC’s flagship Hartford Hospital, but the deal was ultimately abandoned.

Most recent is HHC’s $244 million acquisition of St. Vincent’s Medical Center, a nearby competitor of YNHH-owned Bridgeport Hospital.

So it seemed unusual when the two systems announced on Wednesday that they were jointly pursuing approval of a $72 million cancer treatment facility in Wallingford.

And indeed, it is, HHC CEO Jeffrey Flaks confirmed to HBJ in an interview following the announcement. Flaks said HHC has not previously invested in a business venture with Yale New Haven Health, at least during his 15 years in Hartford.

Though they have acknowledged they exist, the two not-for-profit hospital systems have mostly downplayed competitive aspects of their expansions and partnerships in recent years.

“Our competition is cancer,” Dr. Abe Lopman, the now retired director of YNHH-owned Smilow Cancer Hospital told HBJ in 2014. “We want to get rid of cancer.”

Flaks, who assumed HHC’s CEO role earlier this year, struck a similarly mission-driven tone on Wednesday, saying the cancer institutes at each health system have a shared vision.

“I think this is a wonderful example of the spirit of partnership,” Flaks said. “Together we can make a strong and sustainable program.”

The expected patient volume of the facility is not yet clear. The two systems will be required to detail expected volume and financial impacts to the Office of Health Strategy. An application is expected in the next few weeks, Flaks said.

The 50-50 joint venture between the two health systems would be a first, as would the proposed service.

The two said that the Wallingford facility would be the first in Connecticut to offer proton beam therapy, a radiation treatment that uses high-energy proton beams instead of x-rays, which allows for the dose of radiation to be more finely controlled.

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