🔒Hospital execs oppose Lamont plan to overhaul health care regulatory oversight

Gov. Ned Lamont’s proposal to eliminate the state Office of Health Strategy and replace it with a regulatory panel within the state Department of Public Health is scheduled for a public hearing on Wednesday. The legislature’s Public Health Committee has a full agenda for the hearing, which is set to begin at 11:30 a.m. in Room 2E of the Legislative Office Building. The agenda lists eight bills for the hearing, including House Bill 5045, which seeks to implement the governor’s budget proposals, including “streamlining health care facility approvals.” Lamont’s proposed budget eliminates OHS, transferring core operations and staff to other departments. The office oversees some of the state’s most important health care review programs, including the certificate of need application process, which requires health care providers to obtain state approval before making substantial changes that include hospital mergers and closures. It also conducts the cost-growth benchmarking program, which sets annual targets for health care cost increases. According to the bill, CON oversight would be handed to a three-member panel within DPH. The panel would consist of the commissioners of DPH and the Department of Social Services and the secretary of the Office of Policy and Management, or their designees. The DPH commissioner would serve as panel chair. The new panel would be required to meet quarterly to review and rule on any CON application, but the chair could also schedule special meetings if needed to review any CON application. The bill also would create within DPH a “certificate of need unit” to support the panel, headed by an executive director to be appointed by the DPH commissioner. The cost growth benchmarking program, the state’s health information exchange, the all-payer claims database and rural health initiatives involving information technology would be moved to OPM. In testimony submitted ahead of the public hearing, Paul Mounds Jr., vice president of community, corporate and government relations for Yale New Haven Health System, said his organization opposes the changes to the CON process. He states that the panel “adds an unnecessary layer of review” that would require “multi-state-agency coordination” that is likely to delay the review process. YNHH also objects to automatic public hearings required under the new law, which Mounds said will also delay the process and add costs for applicants. “HB 5045 increases regulatory oversight and control over hospitals without addressing key issues impacting hospitals such as workforce shortages and financial hardship,” he states, adding, “We urge you to oppose HB 5045 as currently proposed.” Testimony opposing the bill was also submitted by Middlesex Health President and CEO Vincent Capece and by Jean Ahn, chief strategy officer for Nuvance Health, which operates Danbury, New Milford and Norwalk hospitals in the state. Testimony in favor of the bill was submitted by DPH Commissioner Andrea Barton Reeves, who said her department “is in full support of this bill,” and by Kathleen Holt, the state’s Healthcare Advocate. While stating she supports restructuring the CON process as proposed by the bill, Holt added that the process “would be better served by including regular and continuous consumer input.” She suggests that including the Office of Healthcare Advocate in the new process would better serve consumers. In addition to that bill, the hearing also will take public comment on HB 5398, which in part seeks to regulate private equity ownership of hospitals in the state. That bill was introduced by the Public Health Committee and is co-sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Martin Looney (D-New Haven).