Dive Brief:
- The Health Policy Commission of Massachusetts will begin notifying health insurers and healthcare providers when they are flagged for excessive cost growth, reports the Boston Business Journal.
- Under some circumstances, the commission can also require performance improvement plans.
- Commissioners noted the need for the agency to be specific about what will get companies in trouble, and to be "very, very careful" about how the data are developed and used.
Dive Insight:
The move is the result of a 2012 state health law that goes into effect in 2016 with the aim of containing health costs in addition to granting the commission the power to require performance improvement plans when excessive cost growth is considered a threat toward the goal of keeping the state's growth in total medical expense costs below that of gross state product.
Companies that don't then make a good faith attmept to comply with an improvement plan could face a $500,000 fine. In addition, their selection for a performance improvement plan would be public information.
"I'd rather us be really clear, because this is like being sent to the principal's office," economist David Cutler, a member of the commission's board, is quoted by the Boston Business Journal. "And so I think it's important that we be clear about what it is that will get you sent to the principal's office."