Northwell Health completes merger with Connecticut-based Nuvance

Northwell Health and Connecticut-based Nuvance Health have completed a merger that marks Northwell’s first expansion outside New York State.

The New Hyde Park-based Northwell said in a news release that the integration with the Connecticut-based Nuvance makes them the "largest not-for-profit" health care system in the Northeast, with a combined $22.6 billion operating budget, more than 104,000 employees, 22,000 nurses and 13,500 providers at 28 hospitals, as well as more than 1,050 ambulatory care and 73 urgent care locations throughout the two states.

"Long Island is where we began and it’s a core part of our focus," Northwell President and CEO Michael Dowling told Newsday Tuesday. "This merger doesn’t diminish anything we do on Long Island. We have plans for hospital expansion and ambulatory expansion on Long Island, so there’s no deterioration at all to our commitment to Long Island."

Before the merger, Nuvance operated seven hospitals, with four in Connecticut and four upstate. Northwell, New York’s largest health care provider, will integrate those seven hospitals into its plans for expansion outside New York State.

As part of the merger deal, Northwell was required to invest at least $1 billion across Nuvance hospitals over the next five years, according to Connecticut’s Office of Health Strategy, which approved the merger in April.

"We’re going to move swiftly but carefully," Dowling said. "We want to make sure we build the efficiencies we need to build and preserve that which is local. All of that is in the works but will take time."

Nuvance posted losses of $164.2 million for the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2023.

President and CEO Dr. John M. Murphy said in a statement that "joining forces with Northwell Health strengthens our ability to meet the evolving needs of patients and ensures we can provide exceptional care for generations to come. This is a transformative moment for our patients, employees and the communities we serve."

The significant merger and integration of hospitals can lead to "trade-offs" for patients and workers, according to Zachary Levinson of KFF, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit health policy research, polling and news organization.

"There has been some research that mergers can affect employee wages," Levinson said. "For example, if hospitals merge and they were previously competing for employees, the health system now has greater leverage with their workers and that can mean lower wages for employees. But, they can also allow hospitals to operate more efficiently, especially in the services they provide."