(HARTFORD, CT) – Governor Ned Lamont today announced that the package of legislative proposals he will ask the Connecticut General Assembly to consider for ratification during the 2025 regular session will include a proposal increasing the oversight and financial stability of Connecticut hospitals, health systems, and medical practices, and ensuring that they continue providing the high quality, accessible, and affordable care that the state’s residents deserve.
The governor noted that as a result of changes in the way healthcare entities are owned, funded, managed, and sold, the state needs to modernize and update its oversight processes to ensure that its healthcare system remains stable. He said the state’s laws overseeing this industry need to keep up with these rapidly evolving changes to protect Connecticut residents.
“The state needs to have a role in overseeing large financial transactions involving healthcare practices and facilities so that we can ensure that the critical services these facilities provide continue to be readily available to our residents,” Governor Lamont said. “In recent years, we’ve seen a real change in how the healthcare system is being operated. This includes an increased share of our state’s healthcare system being owned or managed by out-of-state, for-profit companies. These recent changes have shown that our current statutes contain loopholes allowing important transactions to escape necessary review. I am urging the General Assembly to update our laws to enable the state to have proper oversight of significant health system transactions. We need to provide the state with the tools needed to protect our healthcare system from dangerous and destabilizing practices and ensure that our system continues to provide quality, accessible, and affordable health care for all.”
“We’ve all become aware of how major transactions in healthcare can impact the financial stability of our institutions,” Dr. Deidre S. Gifford, commissioner of the Connecticut Office of Health Strategy, said. “These changes also touch the lives of patients, providers, and healthcare workers in less obvious ways and can also impact healthcare affordability for consumers. We know that some changes in ownership or control can lead to poorer quality, more expensive care – the opposite of what we want for Connecticut residents.”
“We’ve all seen what can go wrong when private equity is allowed to strip mine our local hospitals and healthcare institutions,” Attorney General William Tong said. “And we’ve seen growing challenges with access and affordability of care due to unprecedented levels of consolidation in healthcare delivery in Connecticut. I fully support these measures to strengthen oversight and transparency around these transactions and acquisitions.”
The bill that Governor Lamont will present to the legislature in the coming days will contain the following items:
- Strengthen the existing “notice of material change” statute to make sure the Office of the Attorney General and Office of Health Strategy have insight into transactions that have the potential to negatively impact the healthcare system’s quality, access, or affordability – not just antitrust laws. Under current law, many transactions escape scrutiny.
- Establish an Office of the Attorney General/Office of Health Strategy review process to look for red flags in healthcare transactions.
- Allow the Office of the Attorney General to impose conditions on transactions to prevent harm to the healthcare system or refer the application to the Office of Health Strategy for further evaluation and action.
Governor Lamont is scheduled to deliver his annual budget address to a joint session of the General Assembly on Wednesday, February 5, 2025. Documents containing the full details of his biennial budget proposal and other legislative proposals, including this bill on hospitals and healthcare facilities, will be filed on that date.