By Vin Gopal
As legislators, we often hear from residents who find themselves facing large hospital bills after being treated for an illness or emergency.
So, it is gratifying that the Senate Health Committee has advanced our legislation to contain healthcare costs and create price transparency in hospital treatment.
The legislation establishes the Health Care Cost Containment and Price Transparency Commission, and the Office of Healthcare Affordability and Transparency to create transparency in hospital pricing. Co-sponsored by my LD11 legislative partners Assemblywomen Dr. Margie Donlon and Luanne Peterpaul, the bill has advanced to the appropriations committees in both the Senate and Assembly.
An analysis of costs over time done earlier this year by the nonpartisan Office of Legislative Services revealed some of the reasons patients’ costs are going up. The OLS found that the state budget allocation of $700 million this year to support hospitals was $150 million less than a decade ago. Meanwhile, the costs of Medicaid, which relies on both federal and state funding to provide health insurance for low-income Americans, nearly doubled to $21.3 billion.
Federal funding cuts in Medicaid and other social service programs could result in New Jersey receiving as much as $5.2 billion less from the federal government to pay Medicaid claims next year. In addition the state stands to lose $4.2 billion in federal funds used to support hospitals and nursing homes.
Even though enrollment in Medicaid and the state’s NJ Family Care program have been declining, they still cover 1.9 million New Jersey residents who are poor, disabled or living in nursing homes. Costs continue to grow, with OLS predicting Medicaid spending will increase 2.7 percent over this year.
It comes down to the impact on patients.
The stories we hear from residents are compelling. Some of the constituents we try to help can no longer work or have lost income from work missed because of illnesses and find themselves facing insurmountable hospital bills. They fear they will be unable to put food on the table for their families or be evicted from their homes.
Our bill charges the new Office of Healthcare Affordability and Transparency with providing support, expertise, and staffing as well as infrastructure for the Cost Containment and Price Transparency Commission to comprehensively address healthcare cost growth.
The office also would analyze data and establish a public reporting system to ensure healthcare affordability and informed policymaking. We want to establish guidelines for healthcare entities to submit the necessary data to allow for yearly evaluations of total healthcare expenditures and their growth. The commission would look at pricing information and price growth in formulating benchmarks for healthcare cost growth and growth in hospital pricing.
In addition to making cost information and pricing more transparent, our bill also would include civil penalties as incentives for healthcare entities that exceed the benchmarks, fail to respond to the commission’s request for a corrective action plan, or don’t comply with the requirements of such a plan.
We are pushing for the Assembly and Senate Appropriations Committees to advance this legislation in time for the governor to sign it into law before the current legislative session ends next month.
No one should face a financial crisis in order to be cured of disease or helped through an emergency.
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