Frankel vows action as private equity shuts down Crozer Health hospitals
Says more communities will suffer if the General Assembly does not act
Rep. Dan B. Frankel March 6, 2025 | 2:38 PM
HARRISBURG, March 6 – Pennsylvania House Health Committee Chair Dan Frankel condemned the long-anticipated closure of Delaware County’s Crozer Health hospital system on Thursday, vowing to push legislation aimed at preventing similar crises in the future.
“These hospitals were ransacked, robbed and plundered for profit, and now their private equity owner gets to ride out of town, leaving communities with diminished access to health care and employment,” Frankel said. “It’s devastating, and we have the power to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
Last year, the House Health Committee passed a bill by Rep. Lisa Borowski that would empower the PA Attorney General to review health care acquisitions before they occur and determine if such sales serve the public interest. The bill was crafted in response to the growing role of private equity in the health care market – and the troubling consequences that have followed.
Prospect Medical Holdings bought the then-Crozer Keystone Health System, now Crozer Health, in 2016. In April 2020, the company closed Springfield Hospital and in 2022 ceased operations at Delaware County Memorial Hospital in Upper Darby.
The remaining two hospitals will close their doors next week.
Frankel pledged to again take up the bill in his committee and to work with Borowski and legislative leaders to fast-track it through the General Assembly.
“Medical facilities are too important to our communities for their fates to be left to corporate wheeling and dealing – someone has to represent the interests of Pennsylvanians in these transactions long before something bad happens,” Frankel said.