State News

A new Illinois law will cap out-of-pocket insulin costs at $100 for a 30-day supply, according to WGN9. The new legislation (SB 667) is expected to impact about 1.3 million people in the state who have diabetes and is considered an important step in lowering out-of-pocket costs for Illinois families.

According to NJ Spotlight, New Jersey passed two new laws (A-5916 and A-5918) that respectively authorize the state Department of Health to notify elected officials of fiscal difficulties encountered by hospitals and make hospital reporting requirements more stringent. The goal is to ensure acute-care facilities do not suddenly halt services and leave residents without healthcare in their communities. Concern driving these bills was raised by a March 2019 State Committee of Investigation (SCI) report that spotlighted $157 million in apparently duplicative management and consulting fees paid to third-party companies by CarePoint Health, which owned three Hudson County hospitals.

High prices at hospitals are driving up the cost of healthcare more dramatically in Colorado than elsewhere in the U.S., according to CPR News. Hospital profits increased by more than 280 percent between 2009 and 2018, a state report found, and profit per patient rose to more than $1,500 a patient. The report by the Department of Health Care Policy and Financing also found that uncompensated care in Colorado is at a historic low, and hospital spending on charity care and bad debt has dropped more than $385 million a year since Medicaid expansion in the state.

Connecticut’s Governor signed two executive orders to directly address healthcare costs, primary care spending and quality of care for individuals, businesses and the state government, according to Robert Wood Johnson’s State Network. The orders direct the Office of Health Strategy to establish statewide healthcare cost growth and quality benchmarks in addition to a primary care spending target, and direct the Department of Social Services to improve public transparency of Medicaid costs and quality.

UVM Health Network’s system-wide consolidation has resulted in longer wait times for patients seeking diagnosis and treatment and could increase healthcare costs for Vermonters down the line, according to the VT Digger. This is becuse hospitals that dominate local healthcare markets have greater leverage in negotiations with insurance companies, which can ultimately lead to higher prices per procedure. These higher prices trickle down to patients in the form of higher deductibles, copays and premiums. Barriers to access have caused some Vermont residents to seek care across state lines.  

Washington State launched a collaborative regional Accountable Communities of Health (ACH) model in 2015 to improve the health of communities across the state. These ACHs have evolved into independent organizations that are integral to the state’s health system transformation efforts. A 2019 evaluation by the Center for Community Health and Evaluation found this ACH model has largely succeeded in building robust regional coalitions to improve the health of their communities. This blog by NASHP highlights the ACHs’ diverse approaches to improving health.  

Huntsville Hospital and University of Alabama Birmingham Health System (UAB) are partnering to create a value-based Medicare Advantage plan through managed care company Viva Health, according to HealthPayerIntelligence. Though uninsurance in the state has decreased, outcomes for seniors have gotten worse in Alabama, according to the UnitedHealth Foundation’s 2019 Senior Report. The Medicare Advantage plan will serve seniors in the North Alabama region, through which hospitals will focus on value-based care, population health and rural health, including services such as home health agencies, skilled nursing facilities, pharmacies and durable medical equipment providers.

While Connecticut has led national efforts in public insurance reform, research shows that significant health disparities persist between the state’s residents of color and white residents, reports the CT Mirror. Specifically, Black and Latino residents are more likely than white residents to be uninsured, to die before reaching adulthood and to report being in poor health. Latino adults, in particular, were more than twice as likely as white residents to say they went without seeing a doctor in the past 12 months because of the cost.

While California has made impressive strides in increasing the number of residents who have health insurance coverage, healthcare is still far too expensive for the three million Californians who lack coverage and the 37 million who do not. A report from RAND and the California Healthcare Foundation provides a snapshot of health spending trends in California; explores how healthcare costs are affecting the state’s residents and forcing state officials to make unnecessary trade-offs; and identifies six areas of focus for understanding cost containment approaches targeting unnecessary spending.