The committee of hospital leaders, healthcare policy experts and government officials assembled to address Massachusetts' pricing disparity held its first meeting Tuesday.
The 23-member panel was established through legislation passed in May to avoid putting a controversial ballot question on the voting ticket. If passed, the initiative would have redistributed money from the state's highest paid hospital systems to their lower-paid competitors.
Those assigned to the committee represent the full spectrum of Massachusetts industry stakeholders — from Tyrek Lee, executive vice president of the Service Employees International Union and author of the ballot proposal, to Partners HealthCare CEO David Torchiana, MD. Unsurprisingly, committee members voiced very different opinions at the meeting Aug. 13.
"Commercial price variation is not the cause of financial challenges for community hospitals," Dr. Torchiana told The Boston Globe after the meeting. "Commercial price variation is not a unique Massachusetts phenomenon; it's a national phenomenon."
Howard Grant, MD, CEO of Lahey Health in Burlington, said, "Unless we specifically address unwarranted price variation on this commission, I'm concerned that the amount of the care delivered in higher cost settings is going to continue to escalate. The consequence of that is more community-based healthcare providers will continue to close."
The committee has until March 2017 to issue a report.
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