Massachusetts lawmakers have reached a compromise that aims to avoid a ballot question concerning healthcare pricing.
The deal will reform the Special Commission to Review Variation in Prices among Providers by adding the chairs of the Joint Committee on Health Care Financing as co-chairs to the commission. It will also adjust rates for MassHealth, the state's combined Medicaid and State Children's Health Insurance Program, and calls for a new $45 million trust fund for ailing hospitals over a period of five years.
"Working across the aisle with legislative leaders to work out a consensus agreement is important to addressing the issues raised by the proposed ballot question and I am thankful for the cooperation of the Speaker and Senate President,"Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker (R) said in a prepared statement. "I am pleased that we were able to reach these solutions together and I look forward to the legislature taking up this matter."
The Service Employees International Union had been the main push behind the ballot question, which would prohibit healthcare providers and private health insurance companies from entering into contracts that pay hospitals more than 20 percent above the average amount paid to similar providers for the same services, according to a WAMC report. According to the report, the ballot question would also stop contracts that pay hospitals less than 90 percent of the average amount paid to similar providers.
Tyrek D. Lee Sr., executive vice president of SEIU's Local 1199, told The Boston Globe that the compromise "begins to address the unfair way that Massachusetts hospitals are reimbursed for care."
A spokesman for Boston-based Partners HealthCare told the publication the approach "offers an effective way to provide needed assistance, especially to those community hospitals that serve disproportionately high numbers of low-income patients."
The compromise reached Wednesday must be approved by lawmakers and signed by Gov. Baker before going into effect, WAMC reports. If approved, SEIU plans to pull the ballot question.
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