NHHA LEGISLATIVE UPDATE
January
20, 2007
The Legislature is up and running, with the first few
hearings held last week. The House HHS Committee kicked off
the 2007 session with a bill that, if passed, would mandate
biennial legislative oversight of Medicaid rate setting
methodologies. With no opposition, this bill is likely to
pass.
We met with Governor John Lynch and his Budget Director this
week to talk about proposed Medicaid funding for hospitals.
We brought them up to speed about the ongoing deterioration
of Medicaid payment rates over the past four years, as well
as our opposition to proposed Medicaid cuts for FY
2008/2009. The Governor is presently crafting his proposed
budget which he will present to a joint session of the House
and Senate on February 15th followed by hearings at the
House Finance Committee. Meanwhile, HHS Commissioner John
Stephen’s proposes to reduce Medicaid hospital payments by
eliminating several components of the inpatient and
outpatient payment rates.
Take a look at NHHA’s
presentation made to the House Health & Human
Services Committee on January 10th. A similar presentation
was made to the House Commerce Committee on the 9th.
At the top of NHHA’s legislative agenda (besides the
Medicaid budget) are two bills to help providers and
consumers with access to care and payment for services.
Representative Martha McLeod (D-Littleton) is the prime
sponsor of both bills. The first, if passed, will mandate a
common, uniform definition of “Medical Necessity” for all
health plans offering health insurance in New Hampshire. The
second bill would require health insurers to pay for prior
services provided to health plan members once the provider
is credentialed by the plan.
Other bills we’re tracking this session deal with medical
liability, advance directives, workforce issues, and quality
of care. As bills become available, we will post detailed
information on this web page.
Go to http://www.nhha.org/nhha/state_law/bills.php to view the list of bills NHHA is tracking.
