Page 6 THE REVERE ADVOCATE – FRIDAY, MAY 24, 2024 MASSACHUSETTS HOUSE PASSES MAJOR HEALTH CARE LEGISLATION Legislation is largest update to health care laws since 2012 B OSTON — Thursday, May 16, 2024 — The Massachusetts House of Representatives today passed comprehensive legislation that aims to restore stability to the health care system, bolster accountability within the industry, and control health care spending to ensure that everyone in Massachusetts has access to quality, aff ordable health care. The bill also includes important updates to how the Commonwealth regulates and monitors the health care market, informed by the Steward Health Care crisis. “This bill is the most signifi cant health care market oversight and cost containment legislation in more than a decade, and is a continuation of the Commonwealth’s long-standing effort to ensure that everyone in Massachusetts has access to quality, aff ordable health care,” said House Speaker Ronald J. Mariano (D-Quincy). “I want to thank Chairs Michlewitz and Lawn for working diligently to help craft this legislation, a process that included the incorporation of input from dozens of stakeholders and outside experts, and I want to thank all my colleagues in the House for recognizing the need for this legislation amid a number of daunting challenges facing the Commonwealth’s health care system.” “I applaud House leadership and its members for passing this timely legislation, which includes many proposals from my offi ce such as strengthening our consumer protection enforcement tools and making it easier to use our authority to hold private equity owners accountable. Importantly, this legislation addresses systemic vulnerabilities brought to light by the Steward Health Care crisis to help ensure that such a crisis does not happen again,” said Attorney GenJOHN MACKEY & ASSOCIATES ~ Attorneys at Law ~ * PERSONAL INJURY * REAL ESTATE * FAMILY LAW * PERSONAL BANKRUPTCY * LANDLORD/TENANT DISPUTES 14 Norwood Street Everett, MA 02149 Phone: (617) 387-4900 Fax: (617) 381-1755 WWW.JMACKEYLAW.COM eral Andrea Joy Campbell. “This legislation will help stabilize our health care system, and ensure accountability from all stakeholders, as we continue to recover from the aftereff ects of the pandemic. By strengthening oversight and making much needed reforms, this legislation will not only steady the industry, but will also help control costs for consumers,” said Representative Aaron Michlewitz (D-Boston), Chair of the House Committee on Ways & Means. “I want to thank Speaker Mariano for his commitment and dedication to this issue, as well as Chairman John Lawn, and all my House colleagues for their work and dedication to creating a more aff ordable health care system.” “This legislation looks to the past, present, and future of health care in the Commonwealth. It closes loopholes and shines a light on blind spots that allowed Steward to exploit Massachusetts patients for profit,” said Representative John J. Lawn, Jr. (D-Watertown), House Chair of the Joint Committee on Health Care Financing. “It protects and preserves underpaid community hospitals that are the lifeblood of medicine in the Commonwealth. And it plans for stable and aff ordable health care growth moving forward. This bill delivers on the House’s commitment, under the visionary leadership of Speaker Mariano, to high-quality, affordable health care for all Massachusetts residents.” “This critical legislation will increase the transparency related to the corporate structure of hospitals and other provider organizations by requiring disclosure of signifi cant for-profi t investment, enhancing penalties for failure to comply with data reporting requirements, and so much more,” said Representative Jessica Giannino (D-Revere). “I want to thank Speaker Mariano for his commitment and dedication to this issue and all my House colleagues for their hard work and dedication to creating a more aff ordable health care system.” “We are fortunate to live in Massachusetts with some of the best hospitals the world has ever seen. Despite this, the recent Steward Medical bankruptcy and the slow demise of our community hospitals are a threat to the entire system. This important piece of healthcare reform demonstrates that our Commonwealth can learn from mistakes and be nimble enough to make bold changes. History will show this legislation is an important step in stabilizing the system and improving the delivery of healthcare to our residents,” said Representative Jeff rey Rosario Turco (DWinthrop). The legislation passed continues the House’s commitment to bettering the Commonwealth’s health care system, as was demonstrated during the passage of Massachusetts’ landmark health care 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 passed 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 (CHIA) 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 non-profit 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 from needed investments. The House bill prohibits the future leasing of land from REITs for the operation of a hospital’s inpatient 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 passed reforms the HPC and the health care cost growth benchmark by establishing a benchmark-setting process that is more responsive to market HEALTH CARE | SEE Page 13
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