Readers speak: A CT plan will hurt residents. They deserve better

Hartford Courant – Thursday, May 15, 2025
By John Satterfield

John Satterfield MD FASA is past president of Connecticut State Society of Anesthesiologists.

Earlier this week, I stood with my colleagues in opposition to HB 6871 which caps out of network reimbursement for hospitals and physicians and ties that reimbursement to Medicare rates. Many concerns were raised about the negative effects the proposal would have on patient access and our ability to attract and retain physicians to Connecticut.

After seeing the coverage in the Courant, ‘Doctors say Gov. Lamont’s bill could close hospitals across CT. He says it will contain health care costs‘; I felt the need to comment further.

Today, I am proud to say that every single patient undergoing surgery in a Connecticut hospital benefits from the involvement of a physician anesthesiologist. If HB 6871 were to pass; however, every anesthesia group would become financially unstable and likely unable to sustain their practices.

Medicare was never meant to serve as the basis for reimbursement. Specifically, the Medicare payment system for anesthesiologists is severely flawed, this fact was well documented by the Federal Government Accounting Office in 2007 and again in 2020.

Health insurance companies that already reap multimillion-dollar annual profits would have no reason to negotiate reimbursement rates in good faith, purposely driving physician anesthesiologists out of network to further increase their profits.

Passage of HB 6871 would limit patient access and big Insurance will reap the benefits on the backs of Connecticut residents, every patient in this state deserves better.

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