Public Health Committee
JOINT FAVORABLE REPORT
Bill No.: HB-6397
AN ACT EXPANDING THE DEFINITION OF A REPORTING ENTITY TO THE
Title: ALL-PAYER CLAIMS DATABASE.
Vote Date: 3/12/2021
Vote Action: Joint Favorable
PH Date: 3/3/2021
File No.: 153
Disclaimer: The following JOINT FAVORABLE Report is prepared for the benefit of the
members of the General Assembly, solely for purposes of information, summarization and
explanation and does not represent the intent of the General Assembly or either chamber
thereof for any purpose.
SPONSORS OF BILL:
The Public Health Committee
Office of Health Strategy
REASONS FOR BILL:
This bill requires entities that pay for workers compensation claims to submit information on
these claims to the states all-payer claims database (APCD). The bill applies to entities that
receive these claims directly (i.e., employers) or insurers acting on their behalf.
RESPONSE FROM ADMINISTRATION/AGENCY:
Vicki Veltri, Executive Director of the Office of Healthcare Strategy (OHS):
The OHS supports this legislation. Connecticut ranks 6th in the nation in health care spending
and a National Council on Compensation Insurance (NCCI) study commissioned by the State
estimates that nearly 60% of the price of workers compensation claims are due to increasing
health care costs. In 2019, Connecticut had more than 985,200 medical transactions for
44,000 workers compensation claims costing nearly $200,000,000. None of the nearly 1
million transactions were reported to the state's APCD.
If this legislation is passed, OHS will use the information reported to the APCD on workers
compensation medical claims to better understand where and how care is coordinated, where
possible care gaps exist, and enable a detailed analysis of assorted patient services
payments and how they are contributing rising healthcare costs in Connecticut.
NATURE AND SOURCES OF SUPPORT:
None
NATURE AND SOURCES OF OPPOSITION:
American Property Casualty Insurance Association (APCIA):
APCIA does not support adding workers' compensation medical claims to the APCD. They
state that the workers' compensation system is different from the traditional health insurance
system and the APCD was not designed for workers' compensation medical claims, but for
traditional health insurance claims only.
Adding workers' compensation medical claims to the APCD would not meet the reasons for
the bill. The APCIA also shares that there are other resources available such as the NCCI,
that can provide aggregated workers compensation medical claims data. They state that this
additional and unnecessary reporting requirement is a cost and administrative burden that
already struggling Connecticut businesses participating in the workers' compensation claims
system cannot bear during a pandemic.
Joy Avallone, General Counsel, Insurance Association of Connecticut:
Joy Avallone and the Insurance Association of Connecticut opposes this legislation. She
states that the workers' compensation system is completely different from the health care
system and already has a commission. The Workers' Compensation Commission (WCC)
develops and manages the claims fee schedule with a contactor in accordance with C.G.S.
Sec. 31-294d(d), C.G.S. Sec. 31-280(11)B and C.G.S. 31-280(b)(26)(A). Additionally, the
information sought from adding workers' compensation medical claims to the APCD is
already available from the WCC, the Department of Insurance, and the NCCI. This
information is readily available to OHS, therefore there is no need for additional regulation
requiring this information be reported to the APCD.
John Blair, Associate Counsel, Connecticut Business and Industry Association (CBIA):
John Blair and the CBIA does not support this legislation as workers' compensation medical
claims data is different from health insurance claims data. The data sought from adding
workers' compensation medical claims to the APCD is already available from many sources.
This unnecessary legislation would place additional costs on employers and workers
compensation insurers, most of whom are small businesses that can't incur new costs during
a pandemic to provide information that is already available.
Rory Whelan, Regional Vice President, National Association of Mutual Insurance
(NAMI):
Rory Whelan and the NAMIC opposes this legislation because the APCD was designed to
aggregate traditional health insurance data and not workers' compensation health claims
data. There is already a structure in place in Connecticut, the WCC that has the fee
schedules for workers' compensation medical claims, and readily available data from the
NCCI that can be used to address the goals of this legislation. Additional reporting
requirements will be a duplicative and costly burden on already strained businesses in
Connecticut.
Reported by: Kate Hamilton Date: 3/30/2021
Page 2 of 2 HB-6397


Statutes affected:
Raised Bill:
PH Joint Favorable:
File No. 153: