As Connecticut prepares for the 2026 legislative session, healthcare policy will take center stage. This special series from CTHealthNews.com features leading state policymakers outlining their top healthcare priorities for the year ahead. These insights offer a direct window into the public sector’s role in addressing cost, access, equity, and innovation across Connecticut’s healthcare system.

 

We continue the series with Amy Porter, acting Commissioner of the Connecticut Office of Health Strategy.  Commissioner Porter, a long-serving leader in Connecticut’s health and human services sector, has been appointed Acting Commissioner of the Office of Health Strategy (OHS) while continuing her role at the Department of Aging and Disability Services (ADS). Porter brings over a decade of experience advocating for older adults and people with disabilities, championing inclusion, independence, and access to care. Governor Ned Lamont praised her deep understanding of the healthcare needs of Connecticut’s most vulnerable populations. Porter holds a doctorate in rehabilitation counseling and has led ADS and its predecessor agencies since 2012. Her interim leadership at OHS follows the retirement of Commissioner Deidre Gifford and ensures continuity during this critical period for healthcare strategy and reform in the state.

Commissioner Porter provided answers to a series of pressing questions about healthcare in our state, learn more below:

 

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I have had an outstanding opportunity in my role as acting commissioner of the Office of Health Strategy to expand my understanding of the dynamics influencing healthcare affordability, accessibility, equity and quality.  I have also come to better understand and appreciate the depth of knowledge and expertise the leaders and staff of the agency bring to inform healthcare policy recommendations based on sound research and analysis. The thoughts I share with CT Health News on these critical questions are informed by the insight and dedication they bring to this work.

 

Amy Porter, Acting Commissioner

 

Foundational & System-Wide Issues

 

Hospital Financial Stability:  Many Connecticut hospitals are under significant financial strain, what long-term strategy would you recommend to ensure their stability?

 

Connecticut hospitals, like hospitals across the country, exist in a legacy system that incentivizes high margin services, where payment has limited connection to community need or quality of care. Hospitals need revenue to operate and to innovate, but as expenses climb, this type of system can leave patients behind.

 

Hospital spending accounted for 40 percent of Connecticut healthcare spending in 2023 and nearly 50 percent of spending in the commercial market. Growth in outpatient care spending has been identified as a contributing healthcare cost-growth driver. While hospitals often indicate that underpayment by government payers (Medicaid and Medicare) drive up costs for the commercially insured, the RAND hospital price transparency study demonstrated that hospital consolidation and market control explains most commercial price variation, not the percentage of Medicaid or Medicare patients served.

 

Comparison to national trends also suggests that Connecticut is moving toward  advanced models of value-based care more slowly than the rest of the country.  Hospitals, in collaboration with insurance carriers, pharmaceutical companies and policy makers, will need to explore alternative health care delivery and payment models to break the current cycle that pits institutional financial stability against care patients can afford. The CMMI AHEAD demonstration project, and other alternative payment models, can offer an opportunity for some Connecticut hospitals to explore these alternatives, reduce their reliance on high margin services and reinvest in quality population health outcomes.

 

Health Equity & Access

 

Integrating Social Determinants:  A range of factors such as housing, food, and transportation can be critical to health outcomes. What is the most effective way for state policy to integrate social determinants of health into our core healthcare delivery systems, like Medicaid?

 

Social determinants of health impact individual and community health outcomes for Connecticut residents, regardless of whether they have commercial or public insurance coverage. For example, the Connecticut APCD Behavioral Health Dashboards demonstrate how service utilization for state residents diagnosed with behavioral health disorders differs in the most and least socially vulnerable communities, as measured by the Social Vulnerability Index, a tool developed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

 

The dashboards show that individuals with behavioral health disorders in the most vulnerable towns have higher rates of emergency department (ED) use and acute inpatient admissions than peers in less vulnerable communities.  The differences are substantial.  Behavioral health patients with commercial or Medicaid insurance who live in the most vulnerable communities use the ED at a rate at least 1.5 times higher than patients from the least vulnerable communities. 

 

Changing patterns like these require addressing the factors that determine social vulnerability, including socioeconomic status, household characteristics, racial and ethnic minority status and language, and housing and transportation. 

 

• Programs like the Department of Social Service’s Covered CT have made strides in some of these areas by providing access to no cost health and dental  insurance as well as non-emergency medical transportation for 48,000 state residents who do not qualify for Medicaid, but struggle with basic needs. 
• In the commercial sector, Elevance Health recently highlighted their Food as Medicine initiative at a Connecticut Insurance Department hearing as a way to address the incidence of chronic disease, healthcare spending and utilization.
• The Department of Public Health’s Women, Infants and Children (WIC) Farmers Market Nutrition Program, which helps families put nutritious food on the table and supports local farmers, provides another example of public policy effectively meeting social needs.

 

Continued investment by public and private entities in both documenting social needs and addressing their impact on health will have long-term dividends. Adoption of alternative payment models can also offer provider incentives to invest in Community Health Workers who help patients address health related social needs and adopt evidence-based maternal and infant health home visiting programs like Family Bridge.

 

Prescription Drug Costs:  High prescription drug costs remain a top concern for residents. What state-level policies do you believe would be most effective in controlling these costs for both consumers and the state budget?

 

Connecticut made outstanding progress on addressing prescription drug costs during the 2025 legislative session. A bipartisan legislative task force, focused administrative leadership from Governor Lamont and continuous stakeholder engagement across the healthcare system yielded a package of new measures designed to protect consumers and lower state costs. 

 

Increased transparency in prescription drug pricing and greater insight into how pharmacy benefit managers (PBM) function,  have helped inform these strategies.  Continued efforts to unravel the complex pharmaceutical supply and pricing chain, and work happening in other parts of the country, offer additional opportunity to reduce costs:

 

In the commercial market, there are a number of strategies OHS has identified to lower prescription drug prices for consumers, including:

 

• Increasing biosimilar adoption
• Assessing the potential impact of point-of-sale rebates 
• Lowering patient cost share for brand-over-generic strategies 
• Promoting cost-plus pricing models and reducing cross-subsidization 
• De-linking PBM revenue from drug cost 
• Expanding the use of preventive drug lists

 

Additional policy initiatives both near and far-term may also be worthy of exploration.  California has pioneered the concept of creating a non-profit producer of drugs to allow for direct purchasing. Civica Rx, a nonprofit established by hospitals produces affordable generic medications and also produces state-branded generic drugs, under the name CalRx.

 

Connecticut could also collaborate with other states on setting reference prices for drugs using Medicare as a benchmark.  Expanded use of Connecticut’s ArrayRx card by state residents can also yield hundreds per month in prescription drug savings for consumer users. 

 

 

The Future of Health Data & AI:  As technology and AI play a larger role in healthcare, what steps should the state take to promote effective and secure data sharing while establishing ethical guardrails to prevent bias and protect patient privacy?

Artificial intelligence is moving into healthcare at lightning speed, and Connecticut intends to lead—not follow—in shaping its future.

In 2024, the state became one of the first in the nation to adopt a Responsible AI Framework, committing to transparent, accountable, and ethical use of emerging technology. Since then, momentum has only grown. In 2025 alone, two of Connecticut’s largest health systems and the Connecticut Health Council hosted AI summits, bringing together public and private leaders to explore how AI can transform care while safeguarding patients.

Connecticut already has a playbook for responsible innovation. The creation of the statewide Health Information Exchange, Connie, showed how collaboration can deliver a secure, trusted platform that improves care and lowers costs. That same spirit now drives the state’s approach to AI in healthcare.

The Office of Health Strategy is preparing Connecticut’s next Health IT Strategic Plan, with AI as a central focus. Priorities include:

• Trust – setting standards for safe, unbiased, evidence-based AI tools.
• Innovation – piloting use cases with Connie and the All-Payer Claims Database that deliver quick wins.
• Collaboration – exploring public-private partnerships and national models like Massachusetts’ AI Assurance Lab and New York’s Empire AI consortium.

 

By pairing bold innovation with meaningful guardrails, Connecticut aims to show how states can responsibly harness AI to improve care, reduce disparities, and build public trust.