Health systems oppose bill that creates employment protections for hospital-affiliated physicians

HBJ PHOTO | DAVID KRECHEVSKY The State Capitol in Hartford.

Write a Comment

A bill that would create employment protections for hospital-affiliated physicians is drawing strong opposition from the state’s health systems.

Senate Bill 1452, An Act Concerning Hospital-Affiliated Physicians, was introduced by Senate President Pro-Tem Martin Looney (D-New Haven) and will be discussed during a public hearing Monday conducted by the legislature’s Public Health Committee.

In testimony submitted in advance of the public hearing, Looney states that he raised the bill because of the announcement in January that Trinity Health Of New England (THONE) had entered into a partnership with California-based Vituity, the nation’s largest physician-owned medical partnership group, to manage emergency medicine and hospitalist services at its Connecticut acute-care hospitals — St. Francis in Hartford, St. Mary’s in Waterbury and Johnson Memorial in Stafford Springs.

“The currently THONE-employed physicians were given 90 days to become Vituity employees or lose their jobs,” Looney states. “It is unknown if the contract requires Vituity to maintain current (or any) staffing levels.”

He notes that “this type of transaction does not receive any form of state
oversight under current law.”

His bill would require hospitals to “consult with the affected physicians and receive approval and oversight from the Office of Health Strategy (OHS)” before making “this type of significant staffing change.”

Looney adds that a bill proposed to implement related recommendations from Gov. Ned Lamont, House Bill 6873, would also require state oversight of such transactions and urged the committee to “ensure that the language of these two bills is compatible.”

Hospitals and health systems in the state, however, have also submitted testimony in advance of the public hearing opposing the bill.

In its testimony, the Connecticut Hospital Association (CHA) states that S.B. 1452 would “would see the state of Connecticut insert itself in the core operations of every hospital in the state, creating yet another certificate of need-like process hospitals would have to go through to get approval for staffing and human resource decisions that are the inherent responsibility of the management of the hospital and not the state of Connecticut.”

CHA states that the bill would “tie the hands of hospital leadership across the state, delaying or even preventing operational changes that are in the best interest of the hospital and the patients they serve.”

The association claims the bill would have a negative, long-term impact on “patient safety, the quality of care provided at hospitals, and the financial viability of the organizations.”

Dr. Syed Hussain, senior vice president and chief clinical officer for THONE, also submitted testimony in advance to oppose the bill.

“Hospitals cannot be successful if every operational decision requires a regulatory approval process, especially under the standards for approval in Senate Bill 1452,” Hussain states. “It is not a structure that provides patients and communities with the best possible care.”

The Public Health Committee is scheduled to conduct its public hearing on Monday at 11:30 a.m. in Room 1D of the Legislative Office Building.