SENS. CABRERA & LESSER: HOW MUCH DID CT FINE INSURANCE COMPANIES FOR SHORT-CHANGING MENTAL HEALTH TREATMENTS?

HARTFORD – Just days after the state Insurance Department issued a report saying it has fined five Connecticut insurance companies for short-changing customers seeking mental health treatments, state Senators Jorge Cabrera (D-Hamden) and Matt Lesser (D-Middletown) have written a letter asking the commissioner: How much did you fine them?

The Insurance Department never specified its penalties, which are capped at $625,000 if an insurance company fails to file its annual mental health compliance certifications.

Sens. Lesser and Cabrera are arguing not just for tough fines, but also for tougher follow-up enforcement actions to prevent future occurrences.

“Several carriers refused to provide adequate comparative analyses… even after multiple follow-up interrogatories from the Department. This conduct reflects non-cooperation that, in our view, warrants serious consideration in determining the appropriate scope of penalties,” Sens. Lesser and Cabrera wrote. “We respectfully urge the Department to ensure that this enforcement action goes beyond financial penalties alone.”

Sen. Lessser – who is Senate Chair of the Human Services Committee – and Sen. Cabrera – who is Senate Chair of the Insurance and Real Estate Committee – suggest the Insurance Department adopt the “Kennedy Forum’s Gold Standards for Corrective Enforcement Actions” which includes formal corrective action plans with clear timelines and measurable benchmarks

and reimbursement to enrollees for out-of-network costs incurred as a result of the insurance company’s violations.

The Kennedy Forum document can be found here.

“States including Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and California have successfully deployed

these tools in parity enforcement actions, and Connecticut could do the same,” the senators said. “While financial penalties are an important means of holding insurers accountable, changed

insurer behavior and equal access to care are the ultimate goals of parity enforcement.”

In the meantime, Sens. Lesser and Cabrera are asking the Insurance Department to answer four questions:

1. What are the specific fine amounts assessed against each of the five carriers, and how were these amounts calculated?
2. What is the Department’s process and timeline for finalizing enforcement actions and making penalty determinations public?
3. Does the Department intend to require formal corrective action plans from the cited carriers, and if so, what elements will those plans be required to address?
4. What is the Department’s plan for ensuring that the violations identified in this report result in durable changes in carrier practices?

Last week’s Insurance Department report found that:

• Several insurance companies submitted reports that lacked details about case management, clinical auditing, and drug screening/testing;
• There were “material operational disparities” affecting policyholder access to mental health and substance use disorder networks across all five insurance companies;
• All five insurance companies maintained “non-comparative reimbursement rate methodologies” when compared to their medical and surgical reimbursement rates;
• All five carriers need to strengthen their evaluation of unequal outcome data and identify corrective actions.

In 2019, the General Assembly passed a bill requiring more mental health parity from insurance companies so that their networks and payments more closely mirrored those of medical/surgical patients. Last year, Democrats passed Senate Bill 10, which requires health carriers to annually file a mental health parity compliance certification with the state Insurance Department, which then makes public a carrier’s compliance – or lack of compliance with Connecticut’s mental health parity laws.

The 2025 bill allows the Insurance Department to fine insurance companies up to a maximum of $625,000 if they fail to file these annual mental health compliance certifications.

SENATOR CABRERA VOTES TO CRACK DOWN ON CONTRACTOR THEFT IN CONNECTICUT

HARTFORD – Despite some Republican opposition, state Senator Jorge Cabrera (D-Hamden) today joined several of his Senate colleagues in passing a bill that allows the state to withhold payments to contractors and subcontractors who won’t pay their employees working on state projects.

Senate Bill 268, “AN ACT AUTHORIZING THE COMPTROLLER TO WITHHOLD PAYMENT FOR VIOLATIONS OF THE PREVAILING WAGE STATUTES,” passed the state Senate today on a bipartisan 31-5 vote and now heads to the House of Representatives for consideration.

One of Sen. Cabrera’s first jobs out of college was visiting job sites and investigating wage theft complaints.

“This is a persistent problem here in Connecticut and throughout the country that has continually been hurting workers. Right underneath our noses, not too far away from here in Meriden, a subcontractor was issued eight — I’ll repeat that, eight — stop work orders impacting over 50 workers and $150,000 in stolen wages,” said Sen. Cabrera, who is Vice-Chair of the Labor and Public Employees Committee.“We’re also not the first state to do this. There are 10 states in our country that have similar bills, similar laws on the books to fight back and help workers whose wages are being stolen every single day, right under our noses, on job sites that we drive by every single day. Many times, these workers don’t have the time, the resources, or the willingness to be able to engage the Department of Labor. It simply takes too long. But this bill empowers us, empowers the State of Connecticut to take swift action and hold these contractors responsible. It’s yet one more tool on the tool belt to make sure that we’re on the side of workers in this country and in this state.”

Joseph P. Toner, Executive Director of the Connecticut State Building Trades Council, testified in support of the bill at its public hearing in February.

“Prevailing wage laws are not abstract policy. They directly impact whether working people are paid what they are legally owed for their labor. Senate Bill 268 addresses those difficult cases by providing an additional, targeted compliance mechanism,” Toner testified. “Senate Bill 268 also reinforces fair competition in the construction industry. Law-abiding contractors who pay proper wages and follow the rules should not be placed at a disadvantage by competitors who gain an edge through illegal practices. Ensuring that state payments are tied to compliance helps protect the integrity of the public contracting process and the responsible employers who operate within it.”

S.B. 268 sets a process for the state comptroller to withhold payment to a contractor or subcontractor who has violated the state’s prevailing wage law. More specifically, it allows the labor commissioner to notify the comptroller when she issues a stop-work order against a contractor or subcontractor for knowingly or willfully failing to pay an employee the prevailing wage required on a public works project.

The bill requires the comptroller, within 10 business days after getting the notice, to notify the contractor or subcontractor that he received the notice and that the contractor or subcontractor must comply with the prevailing wage requirement within 10 business days.

If the contractor or subcontractor remains noncompliant after this 10-day period, the bill allows the comptroller to withhold payment to the contractor or subcontractor until the labor commissioner releases the stop work order, the contractor or subcontractor pays any penalties imposed under the prevailing wage law, or parties finalize a settlement agreement.

Connecticut’s prevailing wage law generally requires contractors and subcontractors on certain public works projects to pay their construction workers wages and benefits equal to those that are customary or prevailing for the same work, in the same occupation, in the same town. The requirement applies to new construction projects costing at least $1 million and renovation projects costing at least $100,000.