The control of two cash-strapped Rhode Island hospitals – Roger Williams Medical Center and Our Lady of Fatima Hospital – is poised to change Jan. 30 unless an Atlanta nonprofit can complete a stalled effort to finalize its financing.
In a statement on Saturday, Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha underscored that the Centurion Foundation missed a Jan. 15 deadline for closing its acquisition of the hospitals.
“The Bankruptcy Court Order required Centurion to close by January 15. They did not,” Neronha said. “The Order describes what happens next. Centurion is free to continue to try to close, but we now have work to do and a deadline by which to do it. My office is working hard in consultation with other state leaders and I expect you will hear more about that next week.”
The order entered on Dec. 8 in the Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Texas indicates that if Centurion failed to meet “the Centurion End Date” on or about Jan. 15, “the RI Hospitals shall be transferred out of the Debtors’ Estates in a manner to be agreed between the RI Attorney General and the Debtors.”
The debtors refer to the current owner of Roger Williams and Fatima, Prospect Medical Holdings, which filed for bankruptcy in January 2025.
If control of the Rhode Island hospitals is transferred, it is unclear if they would go into a state receivership or be sold to a buyer other than Centurion. Neronha’s office did not immediately respond to a question about that.
Centurion won state approval in June 2024 to buy Roger Willianms and Fatima, but critics questioned the plan, and the Atlanta nonprofit struggled from the start to finance the transaction by selling bonds to investors.
In a statement late Friday night, Centurion held out hope of being able to complete its financing.
“We are keenly aware of the bankruptcy court timetable,” said Ben Mingle, president/CEO of the Centurion Foundation. “Our financing team, led by Bank of America and RIHEBC [the Rhode Island Health and Educational Building Corp., a quasi-public state agency], has had daily interactions with potential investors over the last several weeks with significant progress.”
Mingle added, “This includes site visits by new, industry-leading investment groups just this week with very encouraging results. At the same time, we have been briefing State leaders almost daily on the status of these efforts and our plans to meet the bond sale target. The Team remains optimistic and we hope to provide a formal update next week.”
Roger Williams and Fatima have lost money for years. They have continued operating thanks to the use of an escrow fund required by Neronha during a previous change in ownership at Prospect Medical Holdings.
Roger Williams and Fatima are among the largest employers and biggest taxpayers in, respectively, Providence and North Providence.
Earlier this week, state Senate President Val Lawson called the fate of the hospitals the most pressing issue facing the state.
If one or both hospitals were to close, the spillover effect would swamp other healthcare institutions in Rhode Island.
Prospect was initially seen as a savior when it bought the hospitals in 2014. Over time, the company’s ownership was criticized for steering hundreds of millions of dollars in dividends to top executives and other investors while degrading its national chain of hospitals.
