GOV. MAURA HEALEY’S health care affordability work group that’s met privately for months has hit its halfway mark, a member and top state insurance official said Thursday, offering a rare glimpse into the panel’s progress.
Group Insurance Commission Executive Director Matt Veno gave an unscripted progress report in response to Commissioner Jane Edmonds’s question during a public board meeting.
“The group has reached sort of a midpoint of the process, and it’s expected that a list of recommendations will be going to the governor within the next few weeks,” Veno said. “This is sort of the first tranche of recommendations that will emerge from that group, and then the work will continue throughout the calendar year on a variety of other recommendations that will take a little bit more time for the group to work on.”
Healey announced the group’s creation on January 14 at a State House press conference, as the Division of Insurance also unveiled since-finalized prior authorization reforms. Bay Staters are increasingly unable to afford care, with many forgoing doctor’s visits and other health care services due to escalating cost concerns that are exacerbated by rising premiums and the prevalence of high deductible plans.
“Look, I’m setting up this working group because I want action, okay,” Healey had said. “I don’t want like a protracted process where we study an issue, you know, for months or years at a time, and come out with some blue ribbon report.”
Healey charged the group with producing “new and innovative” ways to fix health care system problems, while lowering costs and boosting affordability. The governor said she wanted to see “some actual changes and recommendations no later than June.”
Health and Human Services Secretary Kiame Mahaniah in late March said he expected “a lot of the meaty recommendations will be distributed between June and December.”
The work group first met privately on February 12 and Healey attended, according to an Executive Office of Health and Human Services spokesperson. The office has not shared meeting minutes or other materials with the News Service. Other government work groups operate more publicly, including the Health Policy Commission’s primary care task force that broadcast its meetings on YouTube and posted presentations on its website.
“One of the rules of the group, or one of the expectations of the group, is — in support of kind of candid ongoing dialogue and collaborative dialogue — that the work of the group will remain mostly confidential,” Veno said Thursday. “So I can’t speak to any of the specific items that are being discussed there, but I can give the commission the message that it is a serious effort. And I’m an active participant in that group, as you could imagine, and you know, we look forward to the continued work.”
The 30-member group is led by former Health and Human Services Secretary Kate Walsh and Citizens Massachusetts President Lisa Murray, with representation spanning the Healey administration, Legislature, health care providers and care advocates, health policy experts, business groups and insurers.
Veno said the work group has four subcommittees dealing with workforce, administrative efficiency, payment and pricing, and delivery of care “in the right place at the right time and the right care.”
“I would say the work is productive, it is collaborative, it is focused on the right things in my view,” Veno said. “It’s focused on the real core drivers of our affordability crisis in the state.”
Mahaniah previously told the News Service the work group was focused on stabilizing the health care ecosystem, streamlining administrative procedures and growing the workforce.
“We’re particularly interested in recommendations that can be put into law. And also things that don’t need legislation because those are easier to do in a short period of time,” Mahaniah said.
There’s just over a month remaining for scheduled formal sessions in this two-year legislative cycle.
The Senate passed primary care reform legislation last week that did not include explicit affordability provisions, though bill architect Sen. Cindy Friedman said the measure would create cost shifting and some cost savings due to a new payment structure and fewer avoidable emergency department visits. That legislation is in the House, where Rep. John Lawn is eyeing reforms for pharmacy benefit managers.
