NHHA
LEGISLATIVE UPDATE
February 10, 2006
NHHA has been following a large number of bills, including
several dealing with the erosion of employer-sponsored
health insurance coverage and patient safety. Here’s how
these issues are being addressed so far:
Employer-Sponsored Health Insurance Coverage
=The Wal-Mart" bill that would
tax certain employers who do not provide coverage is on its
way to the full House with a recommendation to kill the
bill. The companion bill requiring certain employers to
report on how much they spend on employee health insurance
was voted out of committee to be killed, but only by the
slightest margin. Expect a lively debate on the House floor
on February 15th.
=There are several transparency
bills intended to give consumers access to more information
about healthcare (principally hospital) costs and charges.
Representative Neal Kurk’s (R-Weare) bill which would
require disclosure of hospital charges and payments is on
its way to “interim study”, rather than passing the bill at
this time. NHHA’s testimony asked for more clarity of
purpose as well as better coordination among data systems.
Rep. Lee Quandt’s (R-Exeter) bill would require hospitals to
make certain information about charges available upon
request. This bill is still in committee, but we understand
at this time that the committee will recommend that the bill
be killed.
=A lot of attention is focused
on a bill to create a commission to study cost drivers in
health care. Proposed commission membership spans the gamut
of stakeholders, including NHHA, DHMC, the Business &
Industry Association, and the insurance industry, to name a
few. The bill is still in committee. NHHA supports the
creation of this commission.
=Given the expectation that
more people will be uninsured or forced to buy health care
retail, legislators are concerned that uninsured people are
generally billed "charges" or sticker price for hospital
care, while large purchasers get substantial discounts.
Looking for a way to guarantee that pricing is "fair", SB
378 is intended to require that providers charge uninsured
and underinsured persons the median rate that insurers pay.
NHHA’s testimony on SB 378 outlines measures hospitals have
taken to provide discounts to their patients.
Patient Safety
In response to reports of the Institute of Medicine,
Consumers Union and others, increased attention is focused
on hospital quality of care issues.
"Transparency" bills intended to give consumers more access
to more information about hospital quality are based on the
assumption that comparative information will allow them to
"shop" for hospital care based on quality. The immediate
focus is on infections and hospital infection rate
reporting. The lone surviving infection reporting bill would
mandate reporting of infection rates by hospital.
Testimony on HB 1741 on behalf of
the New Hampshire Hospital Association and the Foundation
for Health Communities describe current infection prevention
and control activities in hospitals, as well as the recently
released hospital quality website -
www.nhqualitycare.org
- that provides public access to comparative information
about hospital performance in New Hampshire. This initiative
has been well received in the media and by policy makers,
and demonstrates that hospitals are willing to share
comparative information about quality with consumers.
Go to
http://www.nhha.org/nhha/state_law/bills.php to view the
list of bills NHHA will be tracking in 2005-2006. Additional bills
will be added as we become aware of them.
2006 Legislative Updates: