Page 10 THE EVERETT ADVOCATE – FRiDAy, MAy 24, 2024 HEALTH CARE | FROM PAGE 1 reform laws of 2006 and 2012. Strengthening oversight to prevent hospitals and other providers from exploiting the same gaps in the state’s regulatory structure that Steward Health Care exposed, the bill makes important updates to the Commonwealth’s laws that govern the oversight of hospital systems and other provider organizations. The House legislation: • Increases transparency related to the corporate structure of hospitals and other provider organizations by requiring disclosure of signifi cant for-profi t investment, including any private equity investments, and empowers the state’s Center for Health Information and Analysis to gather more fi nancial data on hospitals and other provider organizations • Enhances penalties for failure to comply with data-reporting requirements, including increased fi nancial penalties, adverse consequences for licensure, and withholding approvals of future projects • Empowers the Health Policy Commission (HPC) to scrutinize certain transactions more closely for anticompetitive impacts, such as signifi cant equity investments that result in a change of ownership or control of a hospital, conversion of a hospital from a nonprofi t to a for-profi t entity and a signifi cant transfer of a hospital’s assets • Expands the Attorney General’s authority to seek information from signifi cant equity investors, real estate investment trusts (REITs) and management service organizations as part of that offi ce’s statutory authority to monitor and investigate health care trends, and exposes entities with an ownership or controlling interest in a provider organization to potential liability under the state’s False Claims Act if the entity knew, but did not report, that a provider organization was defrauding MassHealth, for example The bill also makes important reforms to prevent acute care hospitals from selling their most valuable asset, their land, to REITs. When Steward sold their hospital properties to Medical Properties Trust (MPT) in 2016 for $1.25 billion, Steward agreed to lease back their former properties from MPT for exorbitant rents, syphoning away important resources and depriving the hospital operations and patients of needed investments. The House bill prohibits the future leasing of land from REITs for the operation of a hospital’s in-patient facilities and requires increased disclosure of other lease arrangements as part of the licensure process with the Department of Public Health (DPH). In response to the tragic death of a patient at one of Steward’s hospitals, the bill also improves patient safety by ensuring that DPH is notified if a hospital’s medical or surgical supplies are at risk of repossession because of a hospital’s fi nancial condition. The bill requires a secured creditor or vendor of medical equipment to notify the hospital and DPH of a possible repossession of equipment 60 days before the intended repossession. Addressing the rising cost of health care To address the rising cost of health care in Massachusetts, the bill reforms the HPC and the health care cost growth benchmark by establishing a benchmark-setting process that is more responsive to market pressures while also raising expectations on providers to meet the Commonwealth’s cost containment goals: • Reconstitutes the HPC board from 11 to nine members who have more current, relevant experience and insight into the trajectory of the health care market • Establishes a Technical Advisory Committee within the HPC to adjust the benchmark based on market conditions, such as infl ation, labor and workforce development costs, and the introduction of new pharmaceuticals, medical devices and other health technologies • Changes the current annual benchmark to a three-year benchmark beginning 20262029, which will allow health care entities greater fl exibility to address unexpected expenses, and give the HPC greater insight into longer-term trends • Gives the HPC increased enforcement authority when a health care entity exceeds the benchmark, and when a first performance improvement plan (PIP) is not successful, by allowing the HPC to suggest elements of a new PIP and to conduct Cost and Market Impact Review (CMIR), which might result in a referral to the Attorney General The bill also establishes a dedicated Division of Health Insurance to review health insurance rates for aff ordability for consumers and purchasers of health insurance products. Currently, the same state agency that reviews auto insurance policies reviews health insurance, an insurance product that is essential to the well-being of residents and an important aspect of one of the Commonwealth’s largest economic sectors. This bill raises the assessments on insurance companies to pay for increased staff to give health inHEALTH CARE | SEE PAGE 11
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