Nuvance Health saw $6.1M profit in 2021 after 2020 loss

DANBURY — Following multi-million dollar losses in 2020, Nuvance Health's profits rebounded in 2021, with the seven-hospital system recording a $6.1 million net gain, in part due to pay cuts taken by some of its top executives.

Even still, Nuvance Health — which operates Danbury, Norwalk, Sharon and New Milford hospitals, plus three f acilities in New York — and other providers in the state continue to feel the lingering effects of COVID-19, on top of a challenging economic climate.

“We are still feeling the effects of the pandemic and are fighting inflation and staffing challenges like many businesses and industries,” Nuvance Health Chief Operating Officer Michelle Robertson said in a statement.

The repeated surges of new COVID-19 cases during the height of the pandemic upended regular operations at hospitals across Connecticut in 2020

Surgical and treatment centers canceled long-held appointments for patients as others infected with the novel coronavirus pulled doctors and nurses away from their regular operations and duties to keep up with the deluge of new cases.

Nuvance reported a more than $42 million loss in 2020 — a figure that would have been closer to $130 million if not for federal pandemic relief funding.

In 2021, profits rebounded to a $6.1 million net gain, with some executives, including CEO and President Dr. John Murphy, seeing their annual compensation f all.

Murphy's annual compensation, including fringe benefits, dropped from just over $14 million in 2020 to about $965,000 in 2021, according to a report of Nuvance's top 10 highestpaid employees, filed with the Office of Health Strategy.

Meanwhile, on Wednesday, the health care provider and the New York State Nurses Association confirmed they had reached a tentative agreement with nurses working at the Vassar Brothers Medical Center in Poughkeepsie, ending a more than year long negotiation and a campaign by the hospital's nurses who sought higher wages and incentives they said were needed to help retain and attract nurses in order to protect the quality of patient care.

“We believe this agreement will help recruit and retain the nurses needed for safer patient care,” said the nurse's association's local bargaining bargaining unit president at Vassar Brothers Medical Center.

Members were expected to vote Friday on whether to ratify the new threeyear contract.