Public gets access to state health strategy office

Republican-American – Monday, January 6, 2025
By Paul Hughes

HARTFORD – The public will now be able to learn when the state Office of Health Strategy and applicants for a required certificate of need enter confidential settlement negotiations.

Dr. Deidre S. Gifford, the OHS commissioner, announced on Monday that notices will be posted on the online CON portal whenever OHS and a health care provider agree to try to negotiate conditions for necessary state regulatory approvals.

OHS also reported Danbury Proton is the first applicant to participate in the notification process with OHS. The physicians group is proposing to open a cancer center in Danbury that would use proton therapy to kill tumors. Its first request for state approval was denied last year.

The notice of the settlement negotiations between OHS and Danbury Proton was dated Dec. 23 and posted to the CON portal on Jan. 1.

Under state law, certain types of health care providers must obtain a CON to make major changes, such as acquisitions and mergers, substantial capital investments in new equipment or facilities, changing access to services or discontinuing a medical service.

State law permits OHS to reach an agreed settlement with an applicant to serve the best interest of Connecticut residents.

“Our goal in negotiating a settlement with an applicant is to ensure any issues within the application we have determined to be insufficient to meet quality, access and affordability criteria are fully addressed,” Gifford said. “Settlement negotiations only begin after the public has had an opportunity to participate in the process by requesting a hearing, seeking intervenor status or submitting testimony.”

OHS, Yale-New Haven Health and Prospect Medical Holdings Inc. confidentially negotiated 46 conditions for state approval of a proposed $435 million sale of Prospect-owned Waterbury Hospital, Manchester Memorial Hospital and Rockville General Hospital to Yale.

In that case, Gov. Ned Lamont announced state regulators, Yale and Prospect consented to open negotiations on the required CON for the sale of the three hospitals and a Prospect-owned medical group.

Lamont had pushed for negotiations after he grew impatient over the length of time the CON review was taking. Yale and California-based Prospect signed sales agreements in October 2022, and Yale filed the CON application a month later. OHS officials described the proposed transaction as one of the most complex that state regulators have ever reviewed because it involved three hospitals and an associated medical group.

But the proposed sale soon faltered following the grant of the CON last March 27 after Yale unsuccessful sought to get Prospect to lower the negotiated sales price from $435 million to $150 million.

Now, Yale is seeking a declaratory judgment in state court that it is not required to complete the sale, and Prospect is countersuing Yale to enforce the purchase agreement. The case is scheduled to go to trial in Hartford Superior Court in April. But Yale is moving for a summary judgment in its favor, and a hearing on that pretrial motion is set for Feb. 11. If summary judgment is granted, the trial would not go forward.

State law sets timelines for reviewing CON applications. When an applicant voluntarily enters confidential settlement negotiations with OHS, both parties agree to suspend prescribed deadlines for a mutually agreed upon period. That timeline may be extended if progress in the negotiations is ongoing. All agreed settlements are posted to the OHS CON online portal. If negotiations do not result in an agreed settlement, OHS will issue a final decision within 60 days of the conclusion of the negotiations. All decisions are also posted to the portal.

OHS said confidentiality in settlement negotiations allows for more productive bargaining and encourages open and honest discussions by protecting sensitive or proprietary information from public disclosure. Confidentiality also prevents outside influence on both the applicant and the agency.

Negotiations between the applicant and OHS consider information already entered into the record and posted publicly through the portal, as well as data provided by intervenors and public testimony. If new documents, introduced during negotiations, are relied upon for settlement, OHS said it makes every effort to post those documents in the online portal, unless protected by applicable confidentiality orders or other protections afforded by law.

“We continue to support transparency in the CON process by providing public access to the CON portal, providing virtual participation options for public hearings, posting hearing videos online, providing weekly status updates on open applications and sharing data demonstrating continued improvements in application processing,” said Gifford. “We welcome public participation at the appropriate time and in the appropriate manner, and we duly consider public input in all decisions, regardless of how those decisions are reached.”

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