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As the state General Assembly prepares for its 2024 legislative session, the Connecticut Hospital Association (CHA) says its overall priority is borrowed from the Hippocratic Oath medical students take — to “first, do no harm.”
The CHA on Thursday issued its annual report detailing the economic impact of hospitals and health care on the state’s economy, along with its priorities for the legislative session. The General Assembly will meet for a “short session,” running from Feb. 7 to May 8.
In an interview Friday with the Hartford Business Journal, CHA Senior Vice President for Policy Paul Kidwell said his organization is most concerned about the financial well-being of the state’s hospitals.
Health systems in Connecticut reported significant losses in fiscal 2022, driven by rising expenses and other challenges.
The state’s 12 major health systems recorded a $719.4 million loss in fiscal 2022, following a $289.1 million loss a year earlier, according to data from the Office of Health Strategy.
Their overall loss was $839.6 million vs. a $1.2 billion surplus in fiscal 2021, a swing of more than $2 billion, OHS data shows.
“The financial health of the industry is not where we want it to be,” Kidwell said. “So, as we go into the session, we do look at proposals that we think would further harm that. We’ll be watching to see if there are any, … with the principle of ‘do no harm.’”
He added, “You’ll see us be pretty vocal about those items should they arise.”
The report released Thursday highlights the association’s legislative priorities, which in addition to hospitals’ financial challenges include workforce development, recruitment and retention; the regulatory environment; and affordability and price transparency, among others.
One obstacle to achieving some of those priorities may be that, as CTMIrror reported, Gov. Lamont’s budget office has stated that legislators can’t “add more than $30 million to the preliminary, $26 billion budget they adopted last June for the 2024-25 fiscal year” without exceeding the spending cap.
Kidwell, however, said his organization believes there are “non-budgetary places” that require attention. For example, he said, there is money already available from the federal American Rescue Plan Act to address workforce issues, including staffing shortages.
“We should continue to think about how those dollars are being spent, related to not just nursing but in developing other, ancillary providers like respiratory therapists or EMS,” he said.
Other examples he cited included adjusting regulations to expand ways to get more nursing instructors in classrooms, as well as adjusting “the oversight regulation and administration of health care.”
For the latter issue, he said there are two parts. First is overhauling the state’s certificate of need (CON) process, which Kidwell said “is not working as effectively as it should be,” as in the case of Yale New Haven Health’s bid to acquire Waterbury, Manchester Memorial, and Rockville General hospitals. That CON process has dragged on for more than a year.
Kidwell said the CHA believes the CON process is “really slowing down progress in the state. We have ideas about how we can make those processes work better.”
The second regulatory issue concerns the relationship between healthcare organizations and insurers and improving that process. “We think the legislature has a role there too, related to how do we make the prior authorization process better for patients so that we’re not adding administrative burden into the system that’s just delaying care,” he said. “That’s not budgetary either.”
In setting its priorities, the CHA also promotes the importance of hospitals and the healthcare industry to the state’s economy. The 2024 report, which analyzes data from the 2022 fiscal year, shows that the overall economic impact rose to $38.7 billion, a nearly 10% increase from $35.2 billion the previous year.
That includes a 16.5% increase to $707 million in spending on buildings and equipment, and a 17.3% increase to $695 million in “additional economic activity generated,” the report states.
Kidwell said the large increases reflected both actual increases in spending and rising costs due to inflation.
“It’s a little bit of both, and if you talk to any of our hospitals that are making those capital improvements, they must be made on a regular basis,” he said. He added that inflation over the previous few years has “been remarkable, particularly in the cost of equipment, energy resources, and supplies.”
The report also states that hospital staffing increased more than 8% to 119,421 from 110,508. While that’s encouraging, Kidwell said hospitals still face staffing shortages, due in part to the state not producing enough trained healthcare workers combined with the difficulty in retaining staff.
“If you look at any of the job postings for any of our members, you’ll see they’re looking for individuals in all disciplines,” he said, including not just nursing but entry-level service jobs and technical jobs. “We need talented staff to provide care, so it will continue to be something that hospitals are pursuing but also struggling with.”
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Read HereThis special edition informs and connects businesses with nonprofit organizations that are aligned with what they care about. Each nonprofit profile provides a crisp snapshot of the organization’s mission, goals, area of service, giving and volunteer opportunities and board leadership.
Hartford Business Journal provides the top coverage of news, trends, data, politics and personalities of the area’s business community. Get the news and information you need from the award-winning writers at HBJ. Don’t miss out - subscribe today.
Delivering Vital Marketplace Content and Context to Senior Decision Makers Throughout Greater Hartford and the State ... All Year Long!
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