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2/10/2026
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Bill to backstop sale of Fatima, Roger Williams passes Assembly
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 STATE HOUSE – The General Assembly today approved legislation aimed at helping to close the purchase of Roger Williams Medical Center and Fatima Hospital and ensure the continued operation of the two safety-net hospitals.
The legislation (2026-H 7408Aaa, 2026-S 2340A) would set aside $18 million in funds from the state’s supplemental “rainy day” fund to back the nonprofit Centurion Foundation’s purchase of the hospitals.
Centurion won state approval in June 2024 to purchase the hospitals from now-bankrupt Prospect Medical Holdings but has struggled to secure private investors to buy the bonds it needs to close the deal, missing a Jan. 30 deadline imposed by a federal bankruptcy judge. The court has granted another extension to Feb. 27, a date by which Centurion has said it has verbal commitments from investors to close the deal if the state is willing to provide the $18 million backstop.
For that reason, legislative leaders moved quickly, vetting the legislation in hearings last week and passing it in the House and the Senate today. It will be transmitted swiftly to the governor for his signature.
House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi (D-Dist. 23, Warwick) and Senate President Valarie J. Lawson (D-Dist. 14, East Providence) today issued the following joint statement:
“Roger Williams and Fatima provide critical health care to our state, and Rhode Island cannot afford a scenario in which they close. Our other hospitals cannot absorb the 300,000 patients they serve each year, nor their 55,000 emergency department visits. With a great deal of involvement from the Health Department and the Attorney General, the state has imposed many, many safeguards as conditions of this purchase to ensure the long-term stability of these two hospitals, and our finance committees and staffs have been diligent, despite the time pressure, in making sure Centurion is prepared to support the hospitals and will work to right the ship after mismanagement by the current owner. While the entire health sector, nationally, faces many uncertainties in the current environment, this sale, which would return the hospitals to nonprofit status, is the best available path forward for a better future for Fatima and Roger Williams, and for public health in Rhode Island.”
The $18 million in state funds, which would come from a secondary rainy day fund created in 2023 during the infusion of federal pandemic recovery funds, serves as a backstop for investors and will not actually be spent if all goes well. It would be tapped only if Centurion fails to make its debt payments, and only after Centurion has used $9 million set aside from the bond sale for the same purpose. The state funding would cover two years of debt service on the 30-year bonds.
There is a separate bill making its way through the General Assembly to help encourage other purchasers if Centurion proves unable to close the deal. The recent court extension for the sale also authorized the state to consider other offers, and gave any interested parties until Feb. 17 to submit proposals. The legislation, which was approved by the House Health and Human Services Committee today and is expected to come to the House for a vote tomorrow, would authorize an expedited review of the sale under the Hospital Conversions Act.
For more information, contact:
Larry Berman, Communications Director for the Office of the Speaker
State House Room 322
Providence, RI 02903
(401) 447-2655
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