Statehouses are expected to pick back up private equity oversight in 2027 as most 2026 bills that stalled didn’t fail on the merits, they simply ran out of time before session ended.
Bills that died in committee or fell out of a final budget deal are likely to be reintroduced when legislatures gavel in for 2027, and a handful of states with no corporate-practice-of-medicine or transaction-review law on the books are being watched as the next battlegrounds.
Here are the states to track once sessions open in January.
New York. Governor Kathy Hochul’s proposal to expand the state’s Material Transaction Law failed to make it into the final fiscal year 2026-2027 budget — the second consecutive year an expansion has come up short, according to a June client alert from Ropes & Gray. The proposal would have given the Department of Health up to 30 days for preliminary review and 180 days for a full cost and market-impact review of covered deals, plus five years of post-closing reporting on cost, quality, access and competition. Ropes & Gray noted Mr. Hochul’s continued interest in the issue and flagged that the state could pursue tighter oversight through regulation or updated notice forms even without new legislation. New York’s legislature convenes January 6, 2027.
Connecticut. Lawmakers passed Senate Bill 196 in 2026, restricting private equity ownership of hospital main campuses and barring investor involvement in clinical decision-making. But state Senator Jeff Gordon, a physician, criticized the final version as leaving a gap: private equity firms can still hold minority stakes or majority control in non-main-campus settings such as ASCs, which he called “a huge giveaway and a loophole,” according to the Hartford Business Journal. That carve-out makes Connecticut a strong candidate for an ASC-specific follow-up bill when the legislature returns January 6, 2027.
Pennsylvania. A cluster of bills — including House Bill 2115‘s 120-day pre-merger notification requirement, along with House Bill 1460/Senate Bill 322, Senate Bill 708 and House Bill 1266 — remained parked in committee through mid-2026. None reached a floor vote before the two-year session closes, meaning sponsors will need to reintroduce them when the new session opens January 5, 2027.
Rhode Island. House and Senate companion bills (H 7172, H 7720/S 2492) requiring 60- to 180-day advance notice of material healthcare transactions, plus separate bills to repeal the state’s certificate-of-need law, remained active but unresolved as of midyear. Rhode Island’s legislature convenes January 5, 2027, giving sponsors an early window to push the notice framework across the finish line.
Virginia. Virginia has no private equity-specific healthcare law today, but House Bill 1458 directs a legislative study of private equity’s impact on the state’s healthcare market, with recommendations due Nov. 1, which is timed to land just before the General Assembly convenes January 13, 2027.
Meanwhile, Vermont’s Act 133 — signed in 2026 and among the most restrictive laws in the country, barring debt-financed acquisitions and dividend recapitalizations and tightening MSO control — is already being cited by attorneys as a template other legislatures may borrow from as they draft 2027 language. The nonprofit Private Equity Stakeholder Project tracked 79 bills across 25 states during the 2025-2026 cycle; with several of the largest states still without a transaction-review or CPOM statute, that count is unlikely to shrink in 2027.
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