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2017 | Doing Business in Connecticut 43 By Natalie Missakian T ed Doolittle thinks consumers need to be smarter health insurance shoppers — and as Connecticut's new state health care advocate, he hopes to help. "I don't think this country has done an awe- some job of really explaining to consumers how much they're paying," said Doolittle, head of the office charged with guiding consumers through the oen- confusing health care landscape. Doolittle, appointed by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy in January 2017, envisions a state website where residents can get "a more holistic, all-in cost" of plans by com- paring out-of-pocket expenses for families with low, medium and high health-care needs. Ideally, he dreams of database where someone could upload their past year's claims history to learn what a potential plan would cost their family — in premiums, co-pays and deductibles — if all their medical needs remained the same in the coming year. "I know the data is out there," he said "It's a matter of getting it extracted and presented." Data driven Compiling and harnessing reams of health care data is right in Doolittle's wheel- house. As deputy director of the Center for Program Integrity, an office within the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services that was tasked by the Obama adminis- tration with rooting out fraud and waste, Doolittle helped private insurance compa- nies and government payers pool their claims data to detect patterns of abuse, such as double billing. A graduate of Harvard and the UConn School of Law, Doolittle launched his career as a federal prosecutor specializing in white-collar fraud. In 2001, he joined the health care department of the Connecticut Attorney General's Office. During the mid-2000s, he jumped from public service to the private sector as an attorney for UnitedHealthcare in Hartford. Doolittle recalled a case where the company had de- nied a family's request to keep their young adult daughter on their health insurance, saying the daughter's serious medical condition did not qualify as a disability. While researching case law, Doolittle found that a serious medical condition could be treated as a disability if it affected a certain number of daily life activities. He put a memo in the case file, and the request was approved with "zero pushback." "at's when I realized that not all insurance companies are big bad companies out there trying to make money by denying claims," he said. "ey just want to make sure that the policy is followed." Aer several years in Washington, D.C., Doolittle returned to Connecticut in August 2016 for a job with the state Office of Consumer Protection. Now living in West Hartford with his wife and three children, Doolittle said he's always been drawn to public service, and had long been eyeing the health care advo- cate's post. But there's admittedly another reason he's glad to be back in Connecticut: the sugar maples. "I actually have a hobby of making maple syrup in my backyard," he said. "I've been away for a few years so I'm kind of looking forward to it." ❑ managing director of Yale's Office of Coop- erative Research. Yale also financed develop- ment of Science Park out of a collection of drab industrial buildings in New Haven's Newhallville neighborhood, where most of the seven had lab-office space. Another crucial development occurred in 1999, when state lawmakers embraced a vital funding format that invigorated many of its homegrown bioscience companies. Most bioscience start-ups have trouble securing traditional loans because technol- ogy requires years of investment before a product can be brought to market. But the administration of then-Gov. John Rowland and Connecticut lawmakers, with a nudge from CURE, which was a fledgling bioscience trade-lobby at the time, rode to the rescue. Legislation was passed allowing start-ups in bioscience and other industries to convert their operating losses, beginning with the 2000 income year, into tax credits that could be converted to cash to fund their operations. Under the ongoing program, the state buys back the credit at 65 cents on the dollar, up to $1.5 million per corporation. In the most recent fiscal year, Connecti- cut approved 72 credit exchanges totaling more than $7.6 million. rough the first four months of fiscal 2017, the state's R&D credit buybacks are up 10 percent to $1.4 million vs. $1.3 million the same period a year ago. "at was a crucial step forward in sup- port of the bioscience cluster,'' Wurzer said. e tax-credit program prompted Yale to ramp up its commercialization efforts, which in turn, drew the attention of the state's flag- ship research university, UConn. Dr. Timothy R. Shannon is a Connecti- cut venture capitalist and former bioscience executive whose fingerprints are on many of the seven early Connecticut biopharmas as well as today's newer start-ups. Shannon is managing partner of Canaan Partners and sits on the advisory board of Connecticut Innovations. He said many of the folks working in bioscience during that time are still active and regularly connect with each other. at, Shan- non says, is where Connecticut derives maxi- mum benefit. "e legacy of those pioneers in Connecticut is their experience — and that most of them are still here, and still helping to build the next generation of innovative start- up companies,'' he said. ❑ is article originally appeared in the Hartford Business Journal on Dec. 5, 2016. SEEKING TRANSPARENCY New Health Care Advocate is on Consumer's Side PROFILE Ted Doolittle