Connecticut hearing on SB 10 spotlights mental‑health parity, prior authorization and stop‑loss debate

Lawmakers and advocates spent most of a long Insurance and Real Estate Committee hearing debating Senate Bill 10, an omnibus measure that would strengthen enforcement of behavioral‑health parity and reshape insurer rules on prior authorization, step therapy, site‑neutral payments and stop‑loss coverage for employer plans.

Supporters said SB 10 gives Connecticut regulators the tools to enforce the state’s 2019 parity law and to curb denials and delays that they say block timely care. Comptroller Sean Scanlon told the committee he supported SB 10’s parity provisions because they would force greater transparency from carriers and give regulators stronger remedies when carriers break parity rules: “The public needs data specifically about their insurance carriers,” Scanlon said, arguing that naming insurers in reports and giving regulators discretion to impose fines would strengthen enforcement.

The Office of Health Strategy’s commissioner, Deidre Gifford, told the panel the bill’s reporting and affordability provisions would help reduce unexplained price variation and give the state more leverage to measure and, when necessary, compel participation in the cost‑growth benchmark process. “We have evidence that entities decline to participate in our hearings,” Gifford said, describing OHS’s efforts to collect complete claims data and its limited ability to require attendance by drug manufacturers and other contributors to cost growth.

Clinical witnesses framed SB 10 as a patient‑safety and access measure. Andrew Gerber, president and medical director of Silver Hill Hospital, said low reimbursement and administrative burdens push clinicians out of insurer networks and that better parity enforcement could help get more mental‑health providers back into networks: “If we can incentivize the payers to pay fairly…that then incentivizes psychiatrists and other…