The Senate passed a proposal Wednesday to limit non-compete clauses in physician contracts and broaden the types of organizations that can employ doctors, a measure intended to address concerns among Senate leaders about doctors’ ability to remain in independent practice or return to it after joining a hospital system.
Hospitals
Posted inHealth
Middlesex Hospital gets approval for shoreline cancer treatment
Middlesex Hospital has reached a settlement with state regulators that will allow it to put a new piece of cancer treatment equipment in its shoreline clinic in Westbrook – a proposal that drew opposition from Yale-New Haven Hospital and sparked questions about the intersection of state regulation and health care competition.
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State behind on funds to help troubled health care professionals
When Connecticut lawmakers raised the annual licensing fee for health care professionals by $5 last year, they assigned the additional money to go to a confidential assistance program for health care practitioners whose medical, mental health or substance abuse issues could prevent them from practicing safely. But so far, the program has yet to receive any of the money.
Posted inEducation, Health, Money, Politics
Legislature adopts bipartisan plan to close this year’s modest deficit
The General Assembly overwhelmingly adopted a bipartisan plan Tuesday afternoon to close most or all of the current budget deficit, immediately shifting the legislature’s focus to a far larger projected shortfall for the fiscal year beginning July 1.
Posted inEducation, Health, Money, Politics
Malloy orders more cuts as lawmakers vow to close deficit by April 1
While legislators committed Wednesday to close a $220 million hole in state finances by March 31, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy ordered $79 million in emergency cuts, two-thirds of which hit social service agencies and education.
Posted inHealth, Money, Politics
Hospitals say state puts them between a rock and a hard place
As hospital officials describe it, state policy is pushing them in two opposing directions. Higher state taxes and funding cuts have added to the factors pushing independent community hospitals to join larger health systems, they say. But at the same time, legislators concerned about the growth of large health systems have been pushing for new restrictions on changes in hospital ownership, which hospital officials say makes it harder for them to adapt.
Posted inEducation, Health, Money
GOP offers cuts, furloughs to close deficit, restore hospital funds
Updated at 5 p.m.
House and Senate Republicans would furlough all state workers for two days, reduce legislators’ pay, eliminate posts in Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s administration and reduce spending for education, social services and other programs to balance state finances by June 30.
Posted inHealth, Money, Politics
Malloy hints at layoffs before summer
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy signaled an intention Tuesday to lay off state employees in the current fiscal year, saying the workforce must shrink substantially, and that the process must begin before the fiscal year ends on June 30. Malloy spoke to reporters after a meeting with legislative leaders, where he pressed them to offer their own cost-cutting ideas.
Posted inMoney
Sharkey, Malloy clash over UConn deal, hospital cuts
House Speaker J. Brendan Sharkey, D-Hamden, and the administration of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy engaged in an extraordinary exchange of criticism Friday over two fiscal controversies, ratcheting up intra-party tensions over how to resolve a worsening budget shortfall.
Posted inHealth, Money, Politics
Prospect of detox, psychiatric bed cuts worries hospital officials
As they try to cut more than $34 million from their budget, officials at the Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services say they anticipate reducing the number of treatment beds available – a prospect that worries hospital officials and mental health professionals. “In an era when we’re in this opioid crisis, why would we be reducing capacity when there’s already not enough?” said Terri DiPietro, director of the Center for Behavioral Health at Middlesex Hospital.
Posted inHealth, Money, Politics
Malloy suspends $140 million in payments to CT hospitals
Responding to shrinking tax revenues, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s administration suspended about $140 million in payments to Connecticut’s acute-care hospitals this week. The decision drew angry responses from the Connecticut Hospital Association and the legislature’s Republican minority.
Posted inHealth, Politics
Malloy orders review of health care oversight, delaying Yale-L+M decision
Updated 8:30 p.m.
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy has ordered the state Department of Public Health to postpone until next year any final decisions on certain hospital transactions – or reject them if state law requires a quicker decision – while a newly created task force examines the state’s oversight process for transactions and other major changes involving hospitals.
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Charlotte Hungerford, Hartford HealthCare to explore affiliation
Charlotte Hungerford Hospital in Torrington has become the latest independent hospital to begin the process of joining a larger health system – in this case, Hartford HealthCare, the parent company of five Connecticut hospitals.
Posted inHealth, Politics
Change to hospital regulation again looms – but direction unclear
As hospitals join larger systems and critics worry about access to care, a key legislator said the time is ripe for lawmakers to revisit the way the state regulates major changes in health care. But it’s not yet clear what shape such changes will take – or whether they would leave the state with more regulation or less, a sign of sharply differing views on its role.
Posted inHealth
Expert: Transparency, savvy patients, competition key in tackling health care prices
Zack Cooper recently co-authored a high-profile paper linking higher hospital prices to market power. He advocates for strong antitrust enforcement when it comes to health care consolidation. But when his father was very sick, Cooper told state policymakers, he wanted him to go to a large medical center that treated a high volume of patients with the same condition. “There’s this tension,” he said.