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General Assembly Raised Bill No. 1051
January Session, 2021
LCO No. 4520
Referred to Committee on INSURANCE AND REAL ESTATE
Introduced by:
(INS)
AN ACT ESTABLISHING A TASK FORCE TO STUD Y MEDICAL
PRACTICE OWNERSHIP M ODELS.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General
Assembly convened:
Section 1. (Effective from passage) (a) There is established a task force 1
to study the corporate practice of medicine doctrine, health carrier 2
ownership of medical practices located in this state and medical practice 3
ownership models that ensure the integrity of medical judgments, 4
optimize patient outcomes and minimize corporate influence and 5
interests. Such study shall include, but need not be limited to: 6
(1) An examination of: 7
(A) The extent to which health carriers have acquired, and are 8
acquiring, medical practices in this state; 9
(B) The medical practice ownership models emerging in this state; 10
(C) The effects that health carrier ownership of medical practices has 11
in this state, including, but not limited to, any effect on: 12
(i) Patient health outcomes; 13 Raised Bill No. 1051
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(ii) Health care costs; 14
(iii) Provider network size; 15
(iv) Timely access to health care; 16
(v) Health care quality; 17
(vi) Patient outcome monitoring; 18
(vii) Health care providers; 19
(viii) Potential conflicts of interest in health care decision-making; 20
(ix) Administrative processes, efficiency and the benefits and costs 21
associated with such effect; 22
(x) Health care provider reporting requirements; and 23
(D) The effects that health carrier ownership of medical practices has 24
in this state in comparison to the effects that other medical practice 25
ownership models have in this state, including, but not limited to, a 26
comparison of effects on: 27
(i) Patient health outcomes; 28
(ii) Costs; 29
(iii) Pricing; 30
(iv) Efficiency; and 31
(v) Quality of care; 32
(2) A benchmarking exercise to compare the effects of health carrier 33
ownership of medical practices in comparison to the effects of other 34
medical practice ownership models in this state, other states and across 35
states for the purpose of gathering as much data and information as 36
possible to make an evidence-based comparison; and 37 Raised Bill No. 1051
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(3) Methods available to address the adverse impacts of certain 38
medical practice ownership models, including, but not limited to, 39
codifying the corporate practice of medicine doctrine in this state. 40
(b) Except as provided in subsection (d) of this section, the task force 41
shall consist of the following members: 42
(1) Two appointed by the speaker of the House of Representatives, 43
one of whom is a physician practicing in a privately-owned medical 44
practice and one of whom is a physician practicing in a health carrier-45
owned medical practice; 46
(2) Two appointed by the president pro tempore of the Senate, one of 47
whom is a physician practicing in a federally qualified health center and 48
one of whom is a physician practicing in a hospital-owned or affiliated 49
medical practice; 50
(3) Two appointed by the majority leader of the House of 51
Representatives, one of whom has expertise in health economics, 52
insurance or pricing and one of whom has expertise analyzing health 53
care provider metrics for a health carrier; 54
(4) Two appointed by the majority leader of the Senate, one of whom 55
has expertise in public health policy and one of whom has expertise 56
analyzing health care provider metrics for a health care provider; 57
(5) Two appointed by the minority leader of the House of 58
Representatives, one of whom has a background in patient advocacy 59
and one of whom is an attorney who has experience practicing antitrust 60
law; 61
(6) Two appointed by the minority leader of the Senate, one of whom 62
has a background in health equity advocacy and one of whom has 63
expertise in medical ethics; 64
(7) The Comptroller, or the Comptroller's designee; 65
(8) The Insurance Commissioner, or the commissioner's designee; 66 Raised Bill No. 1051
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(9) The Healthcare Advocate, or the Healthcare Advocate's designee; 67
and 68
(10) The executive director of the Office of Health Strategy, or the 69
executive director's designee. 70
(c) Any member of the task force appointed under subdivision (1), 71
(2), (3), (4), (5) or (6) of subsection (b) of this section may be a member 72
of the General Assembly. 73
(d) All initial appointments to the task force shall be made not later 74
than thirty days after the effective date of this section. If an appointing 75
authority fails to make an initial appointment under subdivision (1), (2), 76
(3), (4), (5) or (6) of subsection (b) of this section before the expiration of 77
such period, the chairs of the joint standing committee of the General 78
Assembly having cognizance of matters relating to insurance shall 79
jointly make such initial appointment and the member appointed by the 80
chairs shall serve until the appointing authority appoints a member to 81
replace the member initially appointed by the chairs. Any member 82
appointed by the chairs pursuant to this subsection may be a member of 83
the General Assembly. Except as otherwise provided in this subsection, 84
any vacancy shall be filled by the appointing authority. 85
(e) The speaker of the House of Representatives and the president pro 86
tempore of the Senate shall select the chairpersons of the task force from 87
among the members of the task force. Such chairpersons shall schedule 88
the first meeting of the task force, which shall be held not later than sixty 89
days after the effective date of this section. 90
(f) The administrative staff of the joint standing committee of the 91
General Assembly having cognizance of matters relating to insurance 92
shall serve as administrative staff of the task force. 93
(g) Not later than January 1, 2022, the task force shall submit a report 94
on its findings and recommendations to the joint standing committees 95
of the General Assembly having cognizance of matters relating to 96
human services, insurance and public health in accordance with the 97 Raised Bill No. 1051
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provisions of section 11-4a of the general statutes. The task force shall 98
terminate on the date that it submits such report or January 1, 2022, 99
whichever is later. 100
This act shall take effect as follows and shall amend the following
sections:
Section 1 from passage New section
Statement of Purpose:
To establish a task force to study medical practice ownership models.
[Proposed deletions are enclosed in brackets. Proposed additions are indicated by underline, except
that when the entire text of a bill or resolution or a section of a bill or resolution is new, it is not
underlined.]