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By Liz Kowalczyk, Globe Staff Massachusetts House leaders released a major proposal to controlhealth care costs Friday, calling for creation of a new agency tomonitor health spending and order reductions in hospital and doctorfees it finds excessive. The lawmakers project their plan wouldsave families thousands of dollars over the next five years. The long-awaited bill would require the medical industry to cut therate of growth of health spending about in half, to roughly 3.6percent a year, mirroring the overall growth in the Massachusettseconomy. A quasi-independent agency would oversee compliance with this goal,in part by investigating providers and insurers whose prices exceedthe limit and in some cases requiring them to renegotiate feeincreases. Another key provision would charge hospitals and insurers aone-time tax totaling about $200 million to help strugglinghospitals that treat lots of poor patients. They would have to payit by July 2013. The legislation also takes aim at the extreme variation in pricesthat hospitals charge insurers and government payers for similarservices. Investigations by the Globe Spotlight Team and AttorneyGeneral Martha Coakley s office have documented that hospitalswith market power --because of their reputation, location orspecialized services -- often charge much more than other hospitalsfor services of similar quality. Under the legislation being filed Friday, hospitals that charge 20percent or more above the median -- and cannot link their heftyprices to above-average quality -- must pay a 10 percent tax,similar to the luxury tax in baseball, which also will supportstruggling hospitals. The House released its plan during a 2:30 p.m. press conference atthe State House and is sure to find both people who feel itdoesn t come down hard enough on the health care industry -- aproposal by Governor Deval Patrick would allow his administrationto more directly scrutinize contracts between insurers andproviders -- and those who believe it intervenes too heavily intoan important private industry. Lynn Nicholas, president of the Massachusetts Hospital Association,said the bill s spending goals are unreasonable and willimpinge on our ability to deliver care at the level peopleexpect. By 2016, the legislation calls for health carespending to shrink to the rate of growth of the gross state product-- a measure of economic activity -- minus a half-percent. Thehospitals want more time to reach spending targets, and thinkit s unfair to require health care to grow by less than theeconomy overall. During an interview with the Globe, House Speaker Robert A. DeLeosaid he tried to strike a balance because he did not want to stiflethe research and innovation done by an industry that employs one ofseven people in Massachusetts. He called his approach a carrotmore than a stick. Hospitals, doctors, insurers, and government leaders have beendebating for two years whether the industry can control costs onits own or whether the government has to intervene with some typeof price controls. The industry points to a recent moderation ofprice increases to argue regulation is not needed, but consumeradvocates attribute the slowdown to the recession and pressure fromthe Patrick administration. Representative Steven Walsh, a Lynn Democrat and cochairman of theCommittee on Health Care who is leading the House effort, saidduring an interview that the plan would save $160 billion over thenext 15 years. Families would see their annual health insurancepremium fall $2,000 on average below forecasts in the next fiveyears. David Cutler, a Harvard economist who advised the House on theproposal, said it is realistic to expect this level of savings. We are spending $66 billion a year on health care, hesaid. There is a lot of money in that system. Cutler alsoadvised President Obama on health care. The bill also contains provisions that would give consumers moreinformation about the cost and quality of their care, and changesto the malpractice system, including a six-month cooling off periodbefore a patient can file a lawsuit. Senate leaders have said they will release their own cost-controllegislation on Wednesday. Leaders of both chambers hope to passfinal legislation this summer. Liz Kowalczyk can be reached at kowalczyk@globe.com. The e-commerce company in China offers quality products such as Copper Extrusion Machine , Metal Sheet Machines, and more. For more , please visit Notching Machines today!
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