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OLR Bill Analysis
sSB 238
AN ACT INCREASING OVERSIGHT OF MERGERS AND
ACQUISITIONS OF GROUP PRACTICES.
SUMMARY
This bill makes various changes concerning physician group
practices.
By law, certain health care entity transactions require certificate of
need (CON) approval from the Office of Health Strategy’s (OHS)
Health Systems Planning Unit. The bill lowers the threshold, from
eight physicians to two, for the minimum group practice size requiring
CON approval for certain ownership transfers (§§ 3 & 4). As under
current law, CON approval for these transfers is not required if the
other transacting party is a (1) physician or (2) physician group not
affiliated with a hospital, medical foundation, insurer, or similar entity.
The bill eliminates the current presumption in favor of CON
approval for voluntary transfers of ownership of group practices with
eight or more physicians (§ 2). It retains certain other existing
variations from the standard CON process for physician group
voluntary transfers of ownership, and applies them to group practices
of any size, not just those with eight or more physicians as under
current law (§ 5). These variations include:
1. a 60-day review period for the application (instead of the
standard 90-day review period), subject to allowable extensions,
and
2. a public hearing requirement if 25 or more people, or someone
representing that many people, request it in writing (for other
CON applications, these thresholds are lower).
The bill also requires group practices with two or more physicians, 2021SB-00238-R000553-BA.DOCX
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rather than just those with 30 or more, to annually report certain
information to the attorney general and OHS (§ 1). As under current
law, this requirement applies to group practices that are not affiliated
with a hospital (hospitals must report separately on their affiliated
practices). These group practice reports must include the:
1. name and specialties of each physician in the practice;
2. names of the business entities that provide services as part of
the practice and the service locations; and
3. primary service area and service description for each location.
The bill also makes conforming changes.
EFFECTIVE DATE: July 1, 2021
COMMITTEE ACTION
Public Health Committee
Joint Favorable Substitute
Yea 21 Nay 12 (03/31/2021)