EXECUTIVE AND LEGISLATIVE NOMINATIONS COMMITTEE;

CURRENT ISSUES

1. The number of people uninsured is increasing again, both in Connecticut and nationwide. What can the state do to increase access to health care services? What is OHCA’s role? What is possible given the state’s current budget situation?

2. Prompted by rapidly growing hospital, Medicaid, and prescription drug spending, the U. S. health care budget reached about $ 1. 4 trillion in 2001, up from $ 1. 3 billion in 2000. This 8. 7% growth was the largest in a decade. What does this mean for the state in terms of its health care spending, access to and affordability of care by its residents, and the overall economic health of the state?

3. Should managed care continue to play an important role in provision of health care services to the state’s citizens, or should other models of health care delivery be considered?

4. The legislatively created “Commission on the Future of Hospital Care in Connecticut” (SA 00-12) recently completed its work. The commission’s four workgroups (accessibility of care, financial and organization issues, quality of care, and workforce) each made a number of recommendations generally designed to strengthen Connecticut’s hospital system and residents’ access to care. Please discuss these recommendations and highlight those you believe are the most critical, both from a short- and long-term perspective.

5. Last session, the legislature passed PA 02-125 (An Act Creating a Program for Quality in Health Care) which requires the Public Health Department to develop a quality of care program for health care facilities, beginning with hospitals. OHCA is represented on the Quality of Care Advisory Committee established by the legislation. Please comment on OHCA’s role in improving the state’s health care quality.

6. The state recently experienced its first conversion of a non-profit hospital (Sharon) to a for-profit entity. Did the law enacted to deal with such conversions (PA 97-188) provide your agency with the necessary authority and procedures to review the proposed conversion? If not, what were some of the problems?

ISSUES RELATED TO AGENCY RESPONSIBILITIES AND PROCEDURES

1. What is the mission of OHCA? Has it changed over the past few years? What are you doing to ensure that this mission is met?

2. Does OHCA have sufficient health data to perform its statutory functions? Is the state’s ability to make reasoned health care policy decisions undercut by a lack of sufficient, current, and useable data? Is interagency cooperation, in regard to acquisition and analysis of health care data, a problem?

3. Discuss the state’s certificate of need (CON) process. Do any changes need to be made to it?

4. Does OHCA have sufficient authority (statutory, regulatory) to meet its duties of overseeing and coordinating statewide health system planning? If not, what are the deficiencies?

JK: eh