State News

Just four out of 21 randomly sampled hospitals complied with hospital price transparency requirements in 2021, reports the Center Square. This revelation comes from a report by Patient Rights Advocate, which randomly sampled 1,000 hospitals across the U.S. As of January 2021, hospitals are required to fully disclose online prices for services, unveiling negotiated rates between hospitals and insurers. A Wall Street Journal report showed that hundreds of hospitals, including Winston-Salem's Novant Health, were using embedded codes to block access to their pricing lists. The North Carolina Attorney General also released a report in January 2022 that reviewed 147 hospitals in the state, and found that 16 were not compliant with the requirement to provide a machine-readable list of services and prices, one was not compliant with the requirement to provide a consumer-friendly shoppable list and eight were not compliant with either requirement. 

A network of community health centers in upstate New York has started using a mobile medical unit to help remote patients access care, reports HealthLeaders Media. The Hudson Headwaters Health Network rolled out its first primary care van shortly before winter in 2021, with scheduled stops in three small communities, and has since added a fourth stop. The mobile unit addresses a growing problem in rural areas, where healthcare providers are scarce and health insurance rates are low. The network worked with each community to find a good location for the van, to allow visibility and easy access for patients, as well as Wi-Fi access. During the pandemic, the van has become an important resource, allowing access to testing and some vaccinations.

Idaho’s governor signed a teacher health insurance bill into law, aiming to extend better health insurance benefits to teachers across the state, reports Idaho Press. The law creates a fund for school districts that choose to join the state’s health plan and sets a path for the state to increase its contribution for teacher health insurance premiums by approximately $4,000 per teacher, such that school districts can expand family coverage and lower out-of-pocket costs for teachers.

Colorado residents can now indicate that they are uninsured and interesting in finding out if they quality for free or low-cost health coverage on their tax returns, according to Connect for Health Colorado. Residents who do so can qualify for a special enrollment period for coverage on Colorado’s marketplace or they can be connected to coverage on Colorado’s Medicaid program, as part of the state’s effort to reduce the uninsured rate. 

Indiana's nonprofit hospitals are charging prices well above the national average and producing profit margins far above other states, according to a Wall Street Journal editorial. Indiana University Health and other large nonprofit hospitals in particular are charging far above the national average, while small, independent and rural hospitals are charging below the national average. State legislators have called for Indiana hospitals and insurers to present a plan that will reduce hospital prices to the national average within three years, otherwise they will pursue legislation to reduce prices. 

Maine’s governor announced the launch of a pilot project to mail 125,000 free COVID-19 tests directly to the homes of Maine residents most in need, according to the Office of the Governor. The state is partnering with the Rockefeller Foundation to provide 25,000 Maine households five at-home rapid tests for free. Households in rural ZIP codes and ZIP codes that are the most socially vulnerable, based the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s social vulnerability index, are eligible for the free tests. 

Massachusetts' largest and most expensive hospital system is seeking to expand, spotlighting quesitons about whether such expansions by big health systems are driving up healthcare costs, reports Fortune. Mass General Brigham, which owns 11 hospitals in the state, has proposed a $2.3 billion expansion, which includes a significant expansions. The most controversial element, however, is the plan to build three ambulatory care centers, offering physician services, surgery and diagnostic imaging, in three suburbs west of Boston. Massachusetts' Health Policy Commission unanimously concluded that these expansions would drive up spending for commercially insured residents by as much as $90 million a year and boost health insurance premiums. The Commission also ordered the health system to develop an 18-month performance improvement plan to slow its cost growth.   

In North Carolina, nonprofit hospitals billed low-income patients who would otherwise be eligible for charity care at a higher rate than the national average, reports Wilmington Biz. A report by the North Carolina State Treasurer’s office shows that only 18 of the state’s 105 nonprofit hospitals reported actual dollar figures for bad debt—debt that the hospital cannot recover—incurred by patients eligible for charity care. Of those 18 hospitals, the average share of eligible charity care to bad debt is 29 percent, nearly three times the national average. In addition, hospitals attributed an estimated 12 percent to nearly 29 percent of their bad debt to patients otherwise eligible to receive charity care. Furthermore, the study’s authors cast serious doubts on the accuracy of hospitals’ reporting practices that show all patients eligible for charity care received it, as those hospitals are in counties with relatively high poverty rates.

For the first time, the Massachusetts Health Policy Commission has taken action on a hospital system in an attempt to rein in healthcare costs, reports Axios. The Commission is requiring Mass General Brigham (a dominant, tax-exempt academic hospital organization with $16 billion of annual revenue) to submit a plan to lower rising costs that stem from the system's expensive care. Indeed, the Commission claims that the system's high prices (the highest in the state) and market power has led to residents paying a lot more in health insurance premiums and taxes, and that the high spending will impat the state's ability to meet their benchmark of lower cost growth. The system has 45 days to submit a performance improvement plan explaining how it will address the underlying causes of its high costs. If they fail to do so, the Commission may levy a $500,000 fine.