BOSTON
Massachusetts House leaders unveiled a health care payment bill Friday that they say will lower family premiums by nearly $2,000 annually over the next five years in part by cutting waste and inefficiency out of the existing health care system.
The approximately 150-page bill detailed Friday is designed to reward doctors and hospitals for keeping patients healthy instead of paying them for each operation or service they provide.
It creates a new consumer website with price and quality information categorized by medical procedure to help patients compare hospitals and insurers, while overhauling medical malpractice laws by letting doctors apologize for mistakes without fearing a lawsuit and creating a 180-day ?cooling off period? to give both sides a chance to reach a settlement.
The bill would also establish a new quasi-public agency ? the Division of Health Care Cost and Quality ? to oversee the new law and consolidate the state?s various health care agencies.
Lawmakers have been grappling for ways to slow spiraling costs since 2006, when then-former Gov. Mitt Romney signed Massachusetts? landmark health care law.
That law has dramatically expanded access to health coverage.
Massachusetts now has the highest rate of insured residents in the nation ? more than 98 percent of the population. But soaring premiums and other health care costs have threatened to undermine the long term fiscal stability of the law.
House Speaker Robert DeLeo said the House version of the financing bill goes a long way toward reining in those costs.
DeLeo said the bill ?limits cost growth while maintaining high quality health care and innovation.?
?We also ? empower patients to make the best decisions about what their health care options are,? said DeLeo, D-Winthrop. ?We focus attention on prevention.?
The House bill is designed to close wide disparities in health care costs by requiring hospitals that charge more than 20 percent above the state median price for a specific service to pay a fee into a fund to help support hospitals that serve the poor and most vulnerable.
It also would require electronic medical records by 2017 that will allow emergency room doctors to call up a patient?s medical history while simultaneously notifying the patient?s primary care doctor that they have visited an emergency room.
The bill sets guidelines for the size of ?accountable care organizations,? that create leadership teams to ensure patients receive the physical and mental care they need. Under the bill, patients would be allowed to appeal decisions made by their accountable care organization, including the right to a second opinion from any provider.
House leaders said the bill could save the Massachusetts economy $160 billion in unnecessary health care costs over the next 15 years.
DeLeo said the House could vote on the bill around the beginning of June.
The Senate is expected to unveil its version of the bill next week.
Senate President Therese Murray has said she expects passage by July 1 of a major health care overhaul aimed at saving billions of dollars for consumers and small businesses in the next decade.
Murray said the Senate measure would establish independent oversight of the health care industry, improve the quality of care and increase accountability for providers. She estimated potential savings in tens of billions of dollars during the next 10 years.
Gov. Deval Patrick first proposed in February 2010 that the state move toward a so-called global payment system to replace the fee-for-service approach.
Article source: http://www.businessweek.com/ap/2012-05/D9UI2EOG0.htm
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