NHHA
LEGISLATIVE UPDATE
May 19, 2006
The New Hampshire Legislature is in the home stretch and
will complete its last round of votes this coming Wednesday.
Hospitals fared well this session.
Recent developments and highlights from the 2006 session are
summarized below.
End of Life Care/Health Care Decision Making
The committee of conference on HB 656 went down to the wire,
but finally voted unanimously in favor of updating New
Hampshire’s advance directives laws (Living Will and Durable
Power of Attorney for Healthcare). The House and Senate
reconciled their differences, so that it will be easier for
people to express in writing their preferences for health
care; simplify into plain English the legal language used in
the current state law to make it more understandable; and
establish procedures for ‘Do Not Resuscitate’ orders. The
new law will go into effect January 1, 2007.
Health Care Costs
The bill creating a commission to study health care cost
drivers has been tabled for the remainder of 2006. Word has
it that an ad hoc legislative committee will be formed
anyway, with the intent to look into the causes of the high
cost of care.
Infection Reporting
The hospital infection reporting bill passed the House and
Senate, and requires the Department of Health & Human
Services to establish criteria, standards and coding for
tracking and reporting of infections, as well as data
collection and analytical methodologies. However, the
requirement goes into effect no earlier than July 2007, and
will rely on the development of national performance
measures
Reporting of ‘Price’ Information
The Legislature rejected efforts to require hospitals to
post their charges and average payments, report them to the
Insurance Department, which would post them on their
website. During committee deliberations, efforts were made
to add a provision prohibiting confidential business
arrangements between providers and insurers. Instead, the
bill was referred for further committee study.
Rates Charged to the Uninsured
The Senate defeated a measure that would have required
hospitals and other health care providers to charge patients
without health care coverage the median rates paid by third
party payers. NHHA informed legislators of a number of
innovative programs adopted by the state’s hospitals to help
patients with their health care costs. These include the New
Hampshire Medication Bridge Program, the New Hampshire
Health Access Network and currently under development, a
hospital discount program providing discounts of 15% or more
for patients without coverage. Most of NH’s hospitals
provide 100% discounts to patients at or below 200% of the
federal poverty level, and several provide a 100% discount
for people with incomes up to 300% of the poverty threshold.
Coverage for the Uninsured
The House killed the “Wal-Mart” bill intended to tax large
employers (more than 1500 employees) that do not provide
health coverage for their employees. The bill would have
determined how much an employer will spend on insurance, or
impose a health care tax
Certificate of Need
The Senate killed a bill intended to circumvent the
Certificate of Need (CON) process by prohibiting the Health
Services Planning & Review Board from approving elective
angioplasty. The Legislature has consistently rejected past
efforts to circumvent the CON process, thereby maintaining
the integrity of the CON program and process.
Go to
http://www.nhha.org/nhha/state_law/bills.php to view the
list of bills NHHA is tracking.
2006 Legislative Updates: