STATE REGULATORS SEEKING ANSWERS ON BILLING AT WATERFORD ORTHOPEDIC PRACTICE

State regulators have directed Hartford HealthCare to send information clarifying how services were billed at the Waterford orthopedic practice that is being closed by the hospital network.

In a letter sent Tuesday, the Office of Health Care Access asks Hartford HealthCare, the parent network of The William W. Backus Hospital in Norwich, to answer four questions by Dec. 16 that will enable the agency to ascertain what entity billed for services at the Backus Physician Services Orthopedic Surgery, located at the Crossroads Professional Building on Parkway South.

The agency will use the information to determine whether this was a physician-run practice that could be closed without permission from the agency, as Hartford HealthCare contends, OHCA spokeswoman Maura Downes said. If OHCA determines it was a hospital-run practice, a certificate of need would be required from the agency.

Hartford HealthCare is gathering the information to answer OHCA’s questions, spokesman Shawn Mawhiney said.

OHCA became involved in the issue in response to a complaint made by Anne Grabowy of Jewett City, a patient of Dr. Frank Maletz, one of the four orthopedic surgeons in the practice.

In September, patients of Maletz and the three other orthopedic surgeons received a letter from Hartford HealthCare informing them that the practice would be closing. The office is expected to be permanently closed by Dec. 31.