Bill would update health‑insurance statutes after preferred academic contractor became unavailable

House Bill 64‑36, as presented by the Connecticut Insurance Department, would make several technical changes to the state's health insurance statutes: replace a prescriptive requirement that the commissioner contract with the "University of Connecticut Center for Public Health and Public Policy" (which the department said "no longer exists"), lengthen a deadline for pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) data submissions to allow a full 12 months of data, and make the adoption of some regulations permissive rather than mandatory (including rules tied to Public Act 2458 on complex rehabilitation technology and wheelchairs).

Commissioner Andrew Mays explained that replacing the single named third‑party resource in statute is intended to avoid future procurement problems; he said the standard process would be a request for proposals and that the department would prefer a Connecticut academic entity if feasible. Paul Lombardo, assistant deputy commissioner for life and health, told the committee that California's mandate review board provides one model for pre‑passage benefit‑cost work and suggested the committee could examine that approach.

Representative Pavlik D'Amato and others pressed the department on draft wording that changes "shall" to "may" when authorizing the commissioner to engage outside actuarial or research services. Mays said the department wanted flexibility and not to be locked into a single designated entity should circumstances change; one legislator said she preferred retaining "shall" with additional language to avoid locking the department to a named provider.

On the PBM reporting change, the department said current law allowed only 11 months for submission and the bill pushes timing to capture a full 12‑month period. On the wheelchair regulation tied to Public Act 2458, Mays and staff said stakeholders (referred to in testimony) agreed regulations are not necessary at this time, so the bill would make rulemaking discretionary.

Committee members and staff discussed next steps for identifying alternative contractors and models for mandate review; the transcript contains no recorded committee vote on the bill in the excerpts provided.