Business ties between Conn. healthcare steering committee, contractors stir conflict of interest concerns

Legislators and consumer advocate groups have voiced criticism over business ties between multiple members of a Connecticut healthcare steering committee and contractors seeking grants through a $45 million healthcare reform initiative, according to the Hartford Courant.

Critics say the links between committee panelists and contractors present unchecked conflicts of interest. 

The healthcare innovation steering committee is leading an effort to improve medical care and allow physicians to eventually share in the insurance savings that result from healthier patients, according to the report.

In question is the business relationships between two steering committee members and vendors sharing a roughly $600,000 technical assistance contract. Two other members, both of whom are physicians, worked for two of the first four medical practices selected to receive the free technical assistance.

The steering committee's ethics standard is different from other public agencies in that its members do not have to disclose relationships with vendors, except for when they work with state officials in awarding contracts. Then they have to sign the more stringent code of ethics that applies to public officials and state employees, according to the report.

State officials say the steering committee members are "insulated" from the awarding of contracts, though they do participate in the review and selection of contractors.

"At the steering-committee level, we set out the criteria and what we want the program to look like — but we don't decide who gets chosen," said Robert McLean, MD, an internist, according to the report. Dr. McLean is a steering committee panelist and a member of Northeast Medical Group, part of Yale New Haven (Conn.) Health and one of the first practices selected to receive technical assistance from the two vendors. "The question is: are the committee members getting preferential treatment or not? We are not."

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