In The Loop- February 21, 2025

Rare E-Cert Session Days on Monday and Tuesday 

As outlined a few weeks ago, the legislature has the authority to enact emergency certified pieces of legislation that can immediately be acted on without a public hearing. The tool is called the emergency certification process (e-cert for short) and has been allowed to be executed by the majority party with a waiving of the rules of the session.

This process is extremely “inside baseball” with a Jenga block set of pitfalls attached to it so it’s a process that’s not often used during session. It’s been reported that next week the legislature is expected to take up topics related to the certificate of need process for a bankrupt hospital system, altering the way the car tax is estimated by towns, a technical fix to the disabled veteran tax credit program, and appointment of judicial officials.

Many reasons signify the mandate to move forward with the e-cert process, but it normally surrounds a time sensitivity on topics that range from appointments or even a deal that’s been struck on a topic and is ready to be acted upon. A great example of this is tied to the hospital license of the now bankrupt Prospect Medical Holdings. Yale New Haven Health has been in pursuit of purchasing Prospect for the past 18 months, but financial audits revealed the level of debt held by the group was more dire than anyone realized.

The e-cert will essentially allow Prospect to exit their Certificate of Need license obligations (called a CON) with no penalty to clear the pathway for another health system.

Timing was not on the side of the CON e-cert a few weeks ago, but it is more than likely to come up next week.