Healthcare overhaul bill easily passes in Mass. Senate

The Massachusetts Senate quickly passed legislation that would take dramatic steps to overhaul the way healthcare is paid for in the state and aggressively control the growth in how much it costs. Both chambers of the Massachusetts Legislature this month introduced ambitious and broadly similar bills aimed at getting a handle on healthcare spending in the state, which has been the focus of national attention since enacting a sweeping health reform law in 2006. The Senate bill, passed 35-2, would set a goal for the rise in healthcare spending at the growth rate in the state’s overall economy plus 0.5% through 2015, and pegged to the state’s economic growth (measured by the gross state product, or GSP) beginning in 2016. The legislation also would support the development of “Beacon ACOS” and push the industry away from feefor-service payment. All state-funded healthcare programs, including Medicaid, would move to new payment methodologies by 2014. The state’s Division of Health Care Finance & Policy would be reorganized as an independent agency charged with overseeing the healthcare industry. Lawmakers estimate the measures will save $150 billion over 15 years. The House legislation introduced this month would set a spending benchmark below the growth rate in the economy and require private insurers to move away from fee-for-service payment by 2015. Gov. Deval Patrick said in a speech last week that the specific growth target is a “subject for fair debate” but that setting a benchmark above the GSP “just postpones the day when healthcare is all we can afford to buy.”