OPINION: Dan Haar: UConn Health could acquire more CT hospitals. Meet the man behind the effort

Dan Haar, Journal Inquirer, Manchester, Conn.Journal Inquirer

May 7—If you're following health care news, you might know that thousands of people using ConnectiCare for medical insurance will be shut out of the University of Connecticut hospital in Farmington unless the two sides reach a deal before June 14.

Those patients are now barred from making appointments past the cutoff date.

We've seen tense, 11th-hour standoffs between hospitals and health insurers for years — but rarely at John Dempsey Hospital, the UConn Health unit that's Connecticut's only taxpayer-owned hospital.

This isn't a one-off battle at UConn Health. It's part of an aggressive strategy for financial stability, driven in large part by a big-thinking executive with deep experience in the health care businesses who took over as the UConn Health board chairman at the start of 2025.

John Driscoll, a veteran of multiple leadership, policy and technology roles at health care organizations, figures Dempsey Hospital should reverse decades of subsidies from state taxpayers — about $70 million a year. Quality rankings and demand for medical services are both up solidly, creating an opportunity.

Flexing UConn's muscle for what he calls fair reimbursement rates from managed care companies represents a crucial step.

"Historically we've been unwilling to take the fight," Driscoll told me in one of two long conversations. "But the day that the taxpayers are underwriting health care at UConn Health is over."

Well, it's not over just yet. Driscoll figures the state subsidies should end in three years.

Far beyond striking better deals with insurers, Dempsey, the state's sole taxpayer-owned hospital, is looking to grow in ways that could be dramatic. Before Driscoll came onboard, UConn Health sought — and has now gained — a state permit to add 24 more beds, a 10 percent boost, on top of a recently expanded emergency room.

Dempsey also needs to add capacity, or perhaps acquire it, for more surgery and other procedures to boost financial margins, Driscoll said. And it's actively seeking ways to join with other Connecticut hospitals, perhaps even acquisitions.

"We're open for partnerships right now," Driscoll said.

'All options...on the table'

What's this? John Dempsey Hospital could actually buy one or more of Connecticut's smaller, independent hospitals? That's quite a step for a 50-year-old landmark that critics have called an albatross and even supporters have long considered a necessary expense to support research and teaching at the adjacent UConn School of Medicine.

An acquisition isn't a goal in itself, Driscoll told me. It's possible as part of the state's quest to make Dempsey profitable.

"We have the skills, the track record and the position to actually turn the UConn Health system into a net contributor to the state budget. That's our goal and we have a clear sight line to get there," said Driscoll, who is also newly named as a top health industry adviser to Gov. Ned Lamont.

I asked, of course, about the three Connecticut hospitals owned by the troubled, for-profit Prospect Medical Holdings, which filed earlier this year for bankruptcy protection after a merger with Yale New Haven Health collapsed. Driscoll and executives at UConn Health offer no specifics but have not publicly ruled out a partnership that could include Waterbury, Rockville General or Manchester Memorial, the hospitals owned by Prospect that must be sold, and soon.

The remaining independent hospitals in Connecticut, dwindling in number, are located in Stamford, Derby, Middletown, Bristol and Putnam.

"All options would be on the table from an expansion and partnering perspective," Driscoll told me, declining to say whether any talks have advanced beyond early queries. "We are actively looking to expand in ways that would enhance the profitability and extend our ability to provide care to more of the community."

We'll see no buying spree and no moon shots, he promises. Any expansion must help UConn Health boost profits and maintain quality care and patient satisfaction right from the start.

"We're not going to package an economic loser," Driscoll declared. "We're going to create an economic winner for this state that allows us to deliver better care."

He added, "Maybe we don't invest in anything and we just find other ways to grow."

'A turnaround and a growth guy'

Driscoll, 61, a Stamford resident, is best known in central Connecticut for turning around CareCentrix as CEO from 2013 to 2022. The Hartford-based, national health care services provider had low profits and little cash when it was named one of former Gov. Dannel P. Malloy's "First Five" companies in 2012. That made it eligible for up to $24 million in state aid if it maintained 213 local jobs and added 290 more.

CareCentrix crushed that goal under Driscoll, more than quadrupling in size. It sold for $1 billion to Walgreens, which kept Driscoll as a top executive.

Driscoll has led several other health care businesses. He hosts a popular podcast. And he's a member or the chairman of more corporate and nonprofit boards than I can name here, among them, The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore and the Alliance to End Hunger in Washington, D.C.

As an unpaid, non-executive chairman, he's not the day-to-day boss at UConn Health — that would be Dr. Andrew Agwunobi, a pediatrician who also holds an MBA from Stanford University — but Driscoll brings an industry-targeted and strategic focus to the business side of UConn Health in a way that previous chairs have not.

"I think of myself as a turnaround and a growth guy," said Driscoll, who holds a bachelors degree and an MBA from Harvard University and a masters in history from the University of Cambridge in England.

So, which does UConn Health need at its hospital, a turnaround, or growth? A little of both, with an asterisk: The turnaround is strictly financial, not cultural or medical.

In fact, Driscoll cheers loudly for John Dempsey Hospital, with good reason. It's rated in the top 10 percent of U.S. hospitals for overall medical care by CareChex; it was the state's only hospital recognized by Newsweek for patient experience in the magazine's hospital report this year; and it has received a coveted A in safety for nine years running on the LeapFrog survey.

"We're really, honestly, one of the healthcare gems in the state," Driscoll tells me. "Right now we've got the clinical care and the culture in a great place."

'A different energy than what we had'

Driscoll doesn't see this as a cost-cutting or restructuring play. Reimbursement by managed care companies alone could end much of the state subsidy for the hospital.

"If we were just paid at the median level of what other hospitals are receiving, that's worth $50 (million) to $100 million a year," he said, "for the exact same services."

Easy money, it's not. ConnectiCare did not comment when my colleague Liese Klein wrote about the UConn Health standoff last month.

As for expansion, Driscoll talks about more operating rooms but it's a lot more complicated than just building out space. "Our goal is to maintain that culture of care that UConn has while enhancing our capacity." he said.

UConn has seen faster demand for medical services than any other hospital in the state, said Driscoll and Jeffrey Geoghegan, executive vice president and chief financial officer of UConn Health (and of the entire university, under President Radenka Maric).

One wild card: Threats to cut federal grants by President Donald Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the U.S. Health and Human Services secretary who does not seem to believe in medical research. UConn as a whole received about $360 million in grant awards in 2024, Geoghegan said. That could drop by $100 million to $150 million, much of it in health operations.

UConn Health comprises the hospital, the medical school, a dental school and a lot of research labs that are mostly but not entirely connected to the medical school. Federal cuts can affect any of that. And federal Medicaid reimbursement is a wild card to the wild card.

"Can we replace the federal funding with industry funding? I think John will be invaluable with his connections," Geoghegan said.

The CFO appreciates that UConn Health is "more a part of the conversation" in the big-picture of the state, with Driscoll as chairman. "What he actually brings to us though is just a different energy than what we had before."

Driscoll has worked with homeless people and as the CareCentrix CEO, he froze executive pay and brought all employees to at least $15 an hour, long before that was the minimum wage. Progressive roots for sure, but when he talks UConn finances, he's not looking to spend more money.

"The organization is already performing for patients. Now we need to make sure we're performing for taxpayers," he said. "I just love trying to solve public sector problems

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