OFFICE OF FISCAL ANALYSIS
Legislative Office Building, Room 5200
Hartford, CT 06106 (860) 240-0200
http://www.cga.ct.gov/ofa
sHB-5500
AN ACT CONCERNING THE DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC
HEALTH'S RECOMMENDATIONS REGARDING VARIOUS
REVISIONS TO THE PUBLIC HEALTH STATUTES.
AMENDMENT
LCO No.: 5921
File Copy No.: 528
House Calendar No.: 390
Primary Analyst: CP 4/29/22
Contributing Analyst(s): (NF)
OFA Fiscal Note
No Fiscal Impact
The amendment strikes the underlying bill and its associated fiscal
impact.
The amendment makes a number of substantive, minor, and
technical changes in statutes related to the Department of Public Health
which do not result in any fiscal impact to the state or municipalities.
Some of the changes include:
The amendment aligns state statute with federal regulations to
ensure Residential Care Homes can receive reimbursement under
Medicaid as a home and community-based setting which results in no
fiscal impact.
The amendment, which establishes a 13-member Connecticut Rare
Disease Advisory Council to advise state agencies on the needs of
residents living with rare diseases, and their caregivers, is not
anticipated to result in a fiscal impact to the state or municipalities. PA
17-236 prohibits transportation allowances for taskforce members. This
provision also applies to workgroups and councils. 2022HB-05500-R00LCO05921-FNA.DOCX Page 2 of 3
The amendment, which transfers the responsibility for community
benefit data collection and reporting from the Office of the Health
Advocate to the Office of Health Strategy, does not result in a fiscal
impact as this codifies current practice.
The amendment, which prohibits deeming someone ineligible to
receive an organ transplant solely because of his or her physical, mental,
or intellectual disability, is not anticipated to result in a fiscal impact to
the state or municipalities.
The amendment allows infection prevention and control specialists
to provide services at both a nursing home and dementia special care
unit or at two nursing homes that are (1) next to each other or on the
same campus and (2) commonly owned or operated. It allows the
Department of Public Health (DPH) commissioner to waive the law’s
infection prevention and control specialist requirements if she
determines that doing so would not endanger the life, safety, or health
of the facilities’ residents or employees. This provision has no fiscal
impact to DPH as the agency has the ability to investigate any
complaints through normal regulatory activities.
The amendment makes modifications to provisions related to the
Chief Medical Examiner. These provisions have no fiscal impact.
The amendment makes several changes related to private, public and
semipublic wells. These provisions have no fiscal impact.
The amendment establishes a legionella working group. This has no
fiscal impact.
The amendment, which expands the scope of the Department of
Children and Family’s (DCF) Youth Suicide Advisory Board to address
suicide prevention across a person’s lifespan, has no fiscal impact as this
codifies existing practice .
The amendment, which requires hospitals and certain outpatient
surgical facilities to develop and implement a policy regarding a
surgical smoke evacuation system, results in no fiscal impact to the state. 2022HB-05500-R00LCO05921-FNA.DOCX Page 3 of 3
The University of Connecticut Health Center has such a system in all
applicable spaces and therefore no additional resources will be
necessary to either develop or implement the policy.
This amendment establishes a task force to study assisted living
services agencies that provide services as a dementia special care unit or
program. The task force shall submit its findings and recommendations
to the Public Health Committee by January 1, 2023. This has no fiscal
impact as PA 17-236 prohibits transportation allowances for task force
members.
The preceding Fiscal Impact statement is prepared for the benefit of the members of the General Assembly, solely
for the purposes of information, summarization and explanation and does not represent the intent of the General
Assembly or either chamber thereof for any purpose. In general, fiscal impacts are based upon a variety of
informational sources, including the analyst’s professional knowledge. Whenever applicable, agency data is
consulted as part of the analysis, however final products do not necessarily reflect an assessment from any
specific department.