Business Organization Focuses On New Legislation

HARTFORD — The General Assembly enacted many laws this year affecting Connecticut businesses and which take effect on October 1. Measures include those on health care, energy, business law, the environment, and the workplace.

The Connecticut Business and Industry Association recently published a brief list of the most significant of these laws for Connecticut’s business community, with a companion web page providing in-depth analysis of each initiative.

Among the new state laws and acts are:

Health Care

Public Act 07-18 (SB-229) An Act Concerning Lists of Providers and Notification of Termination or Withdrawal of Primary Care Physicians requires managed care organizations (MCOs) to provide a listing of participating health care providers to their enrollees. If an enrollee participates in a plan in which he or she selects the primary care provider, then the MCO must notify the enrollee if that provider leaves the network.

PA 07-113 (SB-1214) An Act Concerning Postclaims Underwriting, among other things, and except with the approval of the Department of Insurance, prohibits health insurance carriers from rescinding, canceling, or limiting coverage based solely on information submitted with, or omitted from, an insurance application if the carrier did not perform a thorough medical underwriting process prior to issuing the policy.

PA 07-185 (SB-1484) An Act Concerning the Healthfirst Connecticut and Healthy Kids Initiatives requires companies that provide health insurance benefits to their employees and deduct a portion of the premiums from employees’ pay to allow the employees to make premium contributions with pretax dollars.

Business Law

PA 07-65 (SB-1384), An Act Concerning the Tolling of the Statute of Limitations in Wrongful Death Cases, gives medical malpractice wrongful-death cases the same 90-day statute-of-limitations extension as other medical malpractice cases.

PA 07-176 (HB-7210), An Act Concerning the Prevention of Abusive and Deceptive Debt Collection Practices, strengthened consumers’ debt collection protections.

PA 07-215 (HB-7204), An Act Concerning the Enforceability of Automatic Contract Renewal Provisions, establishes stringent new requirements for refuse-removal or -disposal contracts with an automatic contract renewal provision.

Energy

PA 07-242 (HB-7432) An Act Concerning Electricity and Energy Efficiency:

*Requires electricity companies to submit a plan to the Department of Public Utility Control (DPUC) each January 1 for maintaining transmission and distribution systems along highways.

*Requires the DPUC to decide by January 1, 2008, on interconnection standards between electric utilities and nonutility generators.

*Requires electric utilities and competitive suppliers to give a credit to all customers who generate up to 2 megawatts of electricity using Class I resources or hydropower.

*Requires municipalities to exempt certain renewable energy systems from the property tax and expands the systems eligible for the exemption.

*Requires a Connecticut Siting Council certificate for any fuel cell manufactured in the state with a capacity of up to 250 kilowatts.

*Requires distributed generation resources below 65 megawatts to meet Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) water quality standards in order to be eligible for a Siting Council certificate exemption.

*Requires an electric company or competitive supplier to waive its demand charge for a fuel cell operator during instances of loss of power or shutdown of the fuel cell that occurs during off-peak hours.

Environment, Land Use

PA 07-45 (SB-1358), An Act Concerning Federal Environmental Standards and Procedures, requires proposed DEP regulations to clarify differences with federal standards and provide an explanation of why Connecticut’s standards should be different.

PA 07-81 (SB-1224), An Act Concerning Licensed Environmental Professionals, makes professionals who are licensed to conduct environmental cleanups in Connecticut subject to additional sanctions if they falsify information, engage in professional misconduct, or otherwise violate laws or regulations. They will also be required to submit additional information to the DEP during the course of an environmental cleanup.

PA 07-141 (SB-167), An Act Revising the Process for the Taking of Real Property by Municipalities for Redevelopment and Economic Development, establishes new procedures at the local level for assessing the consistency of proposed municipal and redevelopment plans with plans of conservation and development as well as changes to relocation benefits associated with eminent domain proceedings.

PA 07-189 (HB-7249), An Act Concerning the Collection and Recycling of Covered Electronic Devices, creates a new statewide recycling program for electronic devices including computers, monitors, and televisions. The program affects manufacturers of these products and requires an annual fee to support the program.

PA 07-192 (SB-1258), An Act Concerning Underground Storage Tanks, places new burdens on and gives record-keeping flexibility to owners of facilities with more than 10 underground storage tanks. The act also establishes new financial responsibility requirements for facilities that apply to the state’s Underground Storage Tank Petroleum Clean-up Account for cleanup after October 1, 2007.

Workplace

PA 07-31, An Act Concerning the Workers’ Compensation Medical Practitioners’ Fee Schedule and Time for Filing a Workers’ Compensation Appeal, authorizes the state Workers’ Compensation Commission to establish a fee schedule using the Medicare “relative valuation” system of determining medical provider reimbursement fees, and begins the 20-day period for filing an appeal of an award or an order by the commissioner to the Compensation Review Board on the date of the decision.

PA 07-80, (SB-1036), An Act Concerning Notification to Injured Employees of the Discontinuation or Reduction of Workers’ Compensation Benefits, creates additional notice requirements for a reduction or discontinuance of workers’ compensation benefits. It also increases the maximum penalty imposed on employers and insurers in certain cases when benefit payments are late, and extends by five days the deadline for appealing a decision to reduce or discontinue benefits.

PA 07-89 (SB-931), An Act Concerning Penalties For Concealing Employment Or Other Information Related To Workers’ Compensation Premiums, makes any employer who knowingly misclassifies the employment status of employees for the purpose of avoiding or reducing workers’ comp liability insurance potentially subject to criminal sanctions and civil penalties. It also enables the state to issue a stop-work order and assess fines against employers in violation.

PA 07-193 (SB-1292), An Act Concerning the Alternative Base Period for Purposes of Unemployment Compensation, makes permanent the alternative base period for determining unemployment compensation benefits by removing the sunset date of Decenrmber. 31, 2007.

PA 07-237 (HB-6989), An Act Concerning Noncompete Agreements, prohibits employers from requiring security guards and certain broadcast professionals to sign noncompete agreements whenever an employee seeks to engage in the same or similar job at the same location at which the employer is located or employs the employee.

For more complete descriptions of each legislative item, download CBIA’s 2007 Summary of Major Business Legislation through the agency’s website, www.cbia.com.