New Law Would Have State Regulate Hospital Prices

Senator Maggie Hassan believes New Hampshire should oversee hospital prices the way it regulates electric rates.

Her bill proposes that the state set up a three-member health care cost review commission modeled on the Public Utility Commission.

Senator Hassan: "This commission is similar in concept, the notion being that health care is a really important product for every New Hampshire citizen, and we really need it as a part of our infrastructure in our everyday lives like we do electricity."

The bill is modeled on Maryland’s system, which not only uses an independent commission to set rates but also employs something called an all payer system.

Senator Maggie Hassan: "So hospitals would be able to come in on a hospital by hospital basis and explain what their costs are and what they need to charge as a result, but notion would be that you would have all payers, including the uninsured, pay the same thing."

Today, hospitals charge different insurance companies, and uninsured and self-pay patients, wildly different prices for the same procedures.

Many say it is this system that creates such high and rising health care costs.

Robert Berenson is a fellow with the Urban Institute:

Robert Berenson: “We are finding that hospitals get as much as 200 percent or more compared to Medicare for same services and they’re getting double-digit increases year after year.”

Steve Ahnen of the New Hampshire Hospital Association disagrees that that’s the problem.

Steve Ahnen: "We don’t believe that this bill addresses many of the underlying drivers for the increasing costs of health care, particularly the significant cost shift created by the extremely low reimbursements under the New Hampshire Medicaid program."

The bill has bipartisan support.

The governor’s office says it considers the bill a good way to start a conversation about reducing health care costs in the state.

For NHPR News, I’m EG.