WALLINGFORD – The Connecticut Hospital Association (CHA) released the following statement in response to a report issued by the Office of Health Strategy (OHS) “Impacts of Connecticut Hospital and Health Care System Consolidation (2016-2021)”:
“The Office of Health Strategy’s (OHS) report fails to review the underlying financial health of hospitals that seek affiliations or the reasons for the affiliations and mergers between hospitals during the study period, all of which were approved by OHS through the Certificate of Need process. It also does not consider what would have happened if affiliations did not occur and financially strained providers were faced with closing down, rather than joining with another care provider, which would have enormous negative impact on preserving care in communities across the state. The report relies on a non-comprehensive data set from the APCD for certain findings and doesn’t recognize that in Connecticut, patients have many choices for healthcare that are not limited within the designated confines of the geographies used in the report. What the report does show is that access to care and the amount of care received by patients was unaffected. The report also shows that low-income patients covered by Medicaid retained access to hospital services. The report is further evidence that state Medicaid rates don’t cover the cost of care, leaving hospitals to make up the difference through higher commercial payments, shifting cost to employees and employers.”