The disbanding of the much-criticized Office of Health Strategy and a revised hospital tax agreement topped Gov. Ned Lamont\u2019s list of health care priorities in his spending plan for the fiscal year that begins July 1.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The governor also proposed protecting public health budgets from federal cuts that could reduce the number of people with health insurance, including an effort to design a \u201cConnecticut option\u201d \u2014 a long-term goal he\u2019s been touting on the campaign trail.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
In his budget address, Lamont reiterated his commitment to developing a public option, commonly understood as a government-backed health insurance plan, in the state. Details are still sparse, but the governor insists a public option would save money for residents and the state.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can and will finally move to universal, affordable health care here in the state of Connecticut,\u201d Lamont said. \u201cThis plan will encourage state employees, retirees and small businesses to go to hospitals where you get the best value.\u201d<\/p>\n
Disbanding the Office of Health Strategy<\/p>\n
Lamont\u2019s budget would eliminate the state\u2019s Office of Health Strategy, transferring core operations and staff to other departments.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The office has been responsible for some of the Connecticut\u2019s most important health care oversight programs, including Certificate of Need, a regulatory process that requires providers to obtain state approval before making substantial changes in the health care sector, such as hospital mergers and closures, and the cost growth benchmarking program, which sets annual targets for health care cost increases.<\/p>\n
The Department of Public Health would absorb the Certificate of Need initiative and the data collection and analyses related to CON decision making, officials said Wednesday. The cost growth benchmarking program, the state\u2019s health information exchange, the all-payer claims database and rural health initiatives involving information technology will be moved to the state\u2019s Office of Policy and Management.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis adjustment will provide long-term efficiencies and avoid duplicative efforts,\u201d Joshua Wojcik, Lamont\u2019s budget director, said Wednesday.<\/p>\n
The move would need legislative approval and would take effect sometime in 2027, officials said.<\/p>\n
Acting OHS commissioner Amy Porter said that the governor\u2019s proposal \u201cmaximizes the value\u201d of the agency\u2019s work by embedding it within larger agencies:<\/p>\n
\u201cThe important work of the Office of Health Strategy has been instrumental in advancing healthcare affordability, access, quality, and equity,\u201d Porter said. \u201cThese efforts have built strong programs and partnerships that will continue to benefit the state and its residents.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sen. Jeff Gordon, R-Woodstock, a practicing physician and fierce critic of OHS, called the proposal \u201clong overdue\u201d and \u201ca step in the right direction.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s about time we took the Office of Health Strategy [and] cut it down to size to what it\u2019s supposed to be. Which is protecting patient care, protecting health care jobs,\u201d Gordon said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sen. Saud Anwar, a South Windsor Democrat who is co-chair of the Public Health Committee, said the office was never properly funded to carry out its duties.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody who had been upset that they weren\u2019t responding in a timely fashion, that they weren\u2019t effective, and that they were not doing their job well \u2014 we never funded them fully as a state, and so that was part of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Scaling back the hospital tax<\/p>\n
The governor also asked lawmakers Wednesday to eliminate most of a previously ordered tax hike on Connecticut\u2019s hospitals.<\/p>\n
The health care provider tax is a complicated levy that raises funds for the state. But it\u2019s also a tool to leverage more Medicaid dollars from Washington, which Connecticut invests \u2014 along with its own resources \u2014 back in hospitals.<\/p>\n
Lamont now wants to reduce the new tax hike from $375 million to $100 million while preserving the plan passed last year to boost payments to hospitals by $140 million annually, netting the hospitals a collective $40 million a year.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But the industry still has concerns. In a statement, Connecticut Hospital Association CEO Jennifer Jackson said that, even with the reduction in taxes levied, the proposal doesn\u2019t do enough for hospitals given how little the state pays providers to treat patients with Medicaid coverage.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAdding to the tax burden without meaningfully addressing this shortfall forces hospitals to make difficult choices,\u201d Jackson said. \u201cWhen Medicaid underpayment isn\u2019t addressed, costs shift to employers and families through higher premiums and out-of-pocket expenses.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another issue at stake is the treatment of Waterbury Hospital for purposes of taxation and supplemental payments. The state is in the process of purchasing the facility from the now-bankrupt hospital operator Prospect Medical Holdings.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Once the hospital moves to state ownership, it will no longer pay taxes, but, under Lamont\u2019s proposal, would still receive supplemental payments from the state, according to Wojcik. The ownership change will bring the net benefit of the supplements payments to all private hospitals to just $25 million, not $40 million, Wojcik confirmed.<\/p>\n
Other health initiatives<\/p>\n
The governor\u2019s budget also calls for initiatives aimed at tempering the impacts of federal cuts to public health.<\/p>\n
Lamont proposed the creation of a pilot program, administered by the Department of Public Health, to provide free flu vaccines to uninsured and underinsured residents. The state would spend $892,000 to launch the service, which would offer up to 52,000 doses of the vaccine, designed to reach about a quarter of the state\u2019s uninsured population.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The governor also proposed $3.3 million at the Department of Social Services to fund 50 new positions to meet the increased workload tied to expanded eligibility requirements linked to federal changes to SNAP and Medicaid.<\/p>\n
A slew of smaller efforts focus on expanding access to health coverage for Connecticut residents.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The first considers spending $1 million to design and develop a Connecticut public option. Another proposes creating portable health care benefits accounts that are tied to workers and can follow individuals, even if they switch jobs.<\/p>\n
The governor\u2019s budget also includes significant new funding to stem a string of deficits in Connecticut\u2019s Medicaid program.<\/p>\n
Lawmakers and Lamont previously agreed to dedicate an extra $79 million to Medicaid starting July 1 to stem another program deficit. The governor\u2019s proposed adjustments Wednesday would trim that increase modestly but would still add $73 million to keep the Medicaid program out of the red.<\/p>\n
CT Mirror reporter Keith M. Phaneuf contributed to this story.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The disbanding of the much-criticized Office of Health Strategy and a revised hospital tax agreement topped Gov. Ned…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":449779,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[100352,22425,97,252,253],"class_list":{"0":"post-449778","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health-care","8":"tag-2026-legislative-session","9":"tag-feature-story","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-health-care","12":"tag-healthcare"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449778","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=449778"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449778\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/449779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=449778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=449778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=449778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}