House Bill No. 6836, reported favorably by the Committee on Public Health, authorizes the Department of Social Services (DSS) to implement a global budget payment methodology for licensed acute care hospitals, including children's hospitals, that choose to participate in the States Advancing All-Payer Health Equity Approaches and Development (AHEAD) federal innovation model. This new payment methodology will replace the existing Medicaid fee-for-service payment method for participating hospitals starting January 1, 2027. Nonparticipating hospitals will continue to use the fee-for-service model. The bill is set to take effect on October 1, 2025.

The AHEAD program is an 11-year federal demonstration initiative aimed at managing healthcare quality and costs across all payors in Connecticut. It includes components such as voluntary hospital global budgets and a statewide health equity plan. The global budget payment methodology will provide participating hospitals with a fixed annual budget for inpatient and outpatient services, calculated based on previous years' payments and adjusted for inflation and service changes. The bill does not delete any existing legal language but introduces new provisions to facilitate this payment model.