Office of Health Strategy

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This post was co-authored by Ben Jensen, member Robinson+Cole’s Technology Industry Team.

On July 25, 2023, the Connecticut Supreme Court issued an opinion in High Watch Recovery Center, Inc. v. Dept. of Public Health that addresses the subject of the right to file an appeal of a Certificate of Need (CON) decision under the Connecticut Uniform Administrative Procedure Act (APA). High Watch involved a case where a party was allowed to intervene in a CON proceeding after the state CON agency had already elected to hold a discretionary hearing on the application at issue. A trial court declined to hear the appeal, and the Appellate Court affirmed that declination, on the basis that there was no “contested case” and no right to appeal the decision in Superior Court because the intervenor never expressly requested a hearing. The Supreme Court reversed this holding, concluding that intervention in opposition to the application was sufficient to render the case contested without need for the intervenor to request a hearing that was already scheduled. The ruling is significant in that it rejects a rigid application of the statutes governing CON procedures and instead focuses on the substance of the public hearing at issue in assessing whether a contested case is presented. Understanding the distinction between mandatory and discretionary hearings is an essential consideration for parties to CON proceedings to avoid foreclosing potential appellate rights.Continue Reading Connecticut Supreme Court Addresses Contested Case Issue in Ruling on Certificate of Need Appeals

On June 27, 2023, Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont signed into law Public Act 23-171 entitled “An Act Protecting Patients and Prohibiting Unnecessary Health Care Costs” (“the Act”), which includes changes to Connecticut’s facility fees law. The Act implements previously-announced legislative initiatives that are the product of collaboration between Governor Lamont and the Connecticut Hospital Association, as well as other health care stakeholders.Continue Reading Connecticut Governor Signs Health Care Bill Revising Connecticut’s Facility Fee Law

As we have previously written on, Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont recently signed into law the state’s budget as Public Act 22-118 (Act), which makes various changes to the Connecticut statutes. Among the changes, the Act expands the authority of Connecticut’s Office of Health Strategy (OHS).Continue Reading Connecticut Expands OHS Authority

On June 30, 2020, the Connecticut Office of Health Strategy (OHS) announced in a newsletter that the agency will prepare to resume the Certificate of Need (CON) application review process. This includes transitioning to virtual hearings, as Connecticut’s COVID-19 restrictions still prevent any in-person hearings. While OHS has yet to announce a specific date for resumption of CON hearings, “OHS officials expect the first of these virtual CON public hearings to be held sometime this summer.”
Continue Reading Connecticut Office of Health Strategy Prepares to Resume Certificate of Need Application Review with Virtual Hearings

The Connecticut Office of Health Strategy (OHS) issued its third guidance document related to CON requirements related to the COVID-19 pandemic on March 25, in which OHS waives CON approval requirements for hospitals seeking to temporarily increase bed capacity or temporarily suspend (as opposed to terminate) inpatient or outpatient services in order to diagnose and treat COVID-19 patients. On March 31, OHS updated that guidance to expand its applicability to outpatient surgical facilities (OSFs) in Connecticut.
Continue Reading Connecticut Waives CON Approval Requirements Entirely for Temporary Bed Expansions and Temporary Service Suspensions by Hospitals and Outpatient Surgical Facilities Related to COVID-19 Response Efforts

On March 20, the Connecticut Office of Health Strategy (OHS) issued new guidance (Guidance) on the process for requesting a certificate of need (CON) waiver for projects related to the COVID-19 response. See our analysis of the initial OHS guidance on CON waivers here.
Continue Reading OHS Streamlines Application Process for CON Waivers to Respond to COVID-19

On March 16, Connecticut agencies released two important guidance documents for state health care providers and organizations confronting the COVID-19 pandemic:

  1. The Connecticut Office of Health Strategy (OHS) – the entity responsible for overseeing Certificate of Need reviews and approvals – issued new CON Guidance that allows OHS to temporarily waive CON review requirements of

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On January 22, 2020, Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont issued two health care-related executive orders, Executive Order No. 5 and Executive Order No. 6, (the Executive Orders) to address the increasing cost of health care in Connecticut. The Executive Orders build upon the state’s Office of Health Strategy’s (OHS) obligation to create a health care cost-containment strategy for Connecticut.
Continue Reading Connecticut Governor Lamont Issues Executive Orders Aiming to Contain Health Care Cost Growth and Improve Transparency

On May 14, 2018, Connecticut Governor Dannel P. Malloy signed into law Public Act No. 18-91 “An Act Concerning the Office of Health Strategy” (PA 18-91), a bill that operationalizes the Office of Health Strategy (OHS), a new health oversight agency in Connecticut. OHS is a division of the Department of Public Health (DPH) “for administrative purposes only” that was provisionally established by the Connecticut General Assembly within the budget implementer bill passed in a special session in late 2017 and accorded responsibility for developing and implementing a health care vision for Connecticut, among other things. PA 18-91 operationalizes OHS by assigning responsibility for administration of Connecticut’s certificate of need (CON) process to a newly created unit within OHS that succeeds the Office of Health Care Access (OHCA), as well as by clarifying and increasing OHS’s statutory health oversight duties.

PA 18-91 took effect from passage on May 14, 2018, except as noted below.
Continue Reading Connecticut Legislature Operationalizes New Health Oversight Agency: The Office of Health Strategy