HARTFORD, CT – Governor Ned Lamont and the Connecticut Hospital Association today announced an agreement on health-related legislative policies that will reduce healthcare costs for Connecticut families and improve the delivery of care in the state.
The agreement is the product of the governor’s commitment to work with all stakeholders on their best ideas to reduce costs, build on the state’s nation-leading response to the global COVID-19 pandemic, and a shared commitment to providing world-class healthcare that addresses health equity and access.
Provisions of the agreement include:
- Enhancing competition by banning contracting practices that make it harder for insurers and consumers to learn about and access the highest quality, lowest cost providers and injecting transparency for providers into insurer contracting practices;
- Extending existing law prohibiting facility fees for certain evaluation and screening services to hospital main campuses;
- Providing information publicly on how savings derived from a federal prescription drug pricing program (340B) helps support healthcare services for low-income residents;
- Enhancing current regulatory and enforcement authority to better ensure lower cost, high quality, equity and accessibility for Connecticut’s residents through a streamlined and timely certificate of need process;
- Committing to develop a strategy to improve healthcare outcomes, community health, and health equity to support HUSKY Health members by identifying barriers and influences that impact health and healthcare outcomes and identifying improvements in how HUSKY pays for services; and
- Studying how Medicare Advantage (MA) plans operate in the state and the impact on healthcare costs. The study will include reviewing how MA administrative processes affect access to and the delivery of care to patients and payments to healthcare providers.
Additional prescription drug provisions of Governor Lamont’s healthcare legislation include:
- Joining a multi-state consortium to buy discounted drugs and allow any resident of Connecticut to use the discount card;
- Making sure consumers and prescribers know when drug prices are going up by publishing a list of large drug price increases every year; and
- Requiring drug marketers to register with the state and make sur they are providing clear, accurate, and transparent information about the drugs they are marketing.
“The quality of Connecticut’s healthcare system is among the best, however rising costs make accessing health coverage a barrier for far too many people, and that is why our administration is focused on addressing the policies and cost drivers that factor into these prices,” Governor Lamont said. “This is a complex issue that needs to be tackled from multiple angles and we need the involvement of all parties – insurers, hospitals, doctors, employers, and consumers – in this effort to provide real solutions to lower healthcare costs. I value the willingness of the Connecticut Hospital Association to sit down with our administration and work on these issues together.”
“We value the partnership we have developed with Governor Lamont and his team, and today’s agreement is the product of a mutual interest in sustaining and improving a world-class healthcare system here in Connecticut,” Jennifer Jackson, CEO of the Connecticut Hospital Association, said. “The agreement recognizes the value that Connecticut’s hospitals and health systems provide every day, the financial challenges they are currently experiencing, and the sustained march toward lowering cost, improving community health and health equity, and eliminating administrative barriers that diminish care and add cost to our system.
