On May 31, the Connecticut General Assembly passed SB 811, a bill that continues our push to bring hospital monopolies under control! Local 34 clinical practice workers and health care team members joined Local 217 health care stewards to urge lawmakers to get control of prices and make sure that we get the quality care we need at a reasonable price.
The new law requires:
- that hospitals stop charging facility fees for routine office visits when they buy doctors’ practices. The ban applies to basic office visits, and is the first in the nation.
- that insurance companies and hospitals make their prices public. Right now, prices are top secret, and that’s one reason why they are so high.
- that hospital IT systems share data. The law makes it illegal for a hospital to refuse to share electronic medical records unreasonably and creates a state-run information exchange so that systems like EPIC can communicate with other systems.
- the creation of a statewide health care cabinet with responsibility for recommending permanent structures to monitor and enforce health care cost and quality.
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