“Accessible and affordable maternity care is fundamental to Western Connecticut,” Mr. Tong said Monday. “This agreement secures continued healthcare access for Connecticut families and I will work tirelessly as I always have protecting them from the negative impacts of healthcare consolidation.”
It also bars the merged entity from engaging in all-or-nothing and anti-steering as well as anti-tiering practices in network agreements, aligning with Connecticut’s new statute.
The evidence reflects that many western Connecticut patients in fact do not see neighboring hospitals as realistic alternatives to Nuvance’s Sharon Hospital. As a result any additional providers during the crucial period before this new cooperative can be gotten on board (as it takes time to get new partners), let alone these regular fellows now training there who are studying under clinical professors of which each needs an instructor himself even without considering students like these who will never become themselves A university! [“The real test will be during daylight hours,” one source remarked.]
