Statement of State Healthcare Advocate Kevin Lembo on today’s victory for accountability in the matter of Anthem, HealthNet and Community Health Network v. Freedom of Information Commission before the Honorable George Levine, Superior Court, New Britain:

The court’s decision in this matter is a victory for Connecticut taxpayers and for the future of health care reform in our state.

Without the transparency that flows from this decision, we would never know what percentage of our HMO premium is actually spent on public health care, and what percentage is spent on executive bonuses and overhead.

The managed care organizations tried to have it both ways – monopolistic access to public money through public contracts, as well as secrecy in their business practices that put them in violation of state sunshine laws.

Health care and profit-motivated companies make strange bedfellows.  Without accountability and transparency, however, these business relationships are doomed to failure.

For too long the most critical information in this program has been kept secret from the public in a way that shields the HMOs from accounting for recipients’ lack of access to care.

The kind of information that the HMOs have been shielding, is the same information that we as taxpayers and state advocates need in order to speak substantively about real improvements in access to health care for the underinsured and uninsured in our state.

We’re now one step closer to ensuring that accountability.

This is about more than managed care.  It is about accountability for over $700 million of taxpayer money given to private entities to run a critical governmental health insurance program. 

The court’s decision today reestablishes the framework for a healthier Connecticut – physically and financially.

The independent state office of the Healthcare Advocate successfully sought intervenor status in this case.  The Healthcare Advocate argued that his ability to perform his statutory responsibilities would be obstructed if the HMOs were allowed to hide information such as physician reimbursement rates in state programs from public scrutiny.

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