Insurers Urge Congress To Put More Cost Control In Health Bill

NU Online News Service, March 16, 4:20 p.m. EDT

WASHINGTON–America's Health Insurance Plans today urged Congress to revise current health care reform legislative proposals to focus more on cost controls and medical liability law changes.

AHIP's comments were in a letter to Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.

It came as the House Democratic leadership and President Obama continued working to round up the votes to pass the version of health care reform legislation approved by the Senate last December.

The next key action will probably come tomorrow when a vote is taken in the House Rules Committee to clear the bill for floor action.

A vote on the House floor could occur as early as Friday.

The AHIP letter to Secretary Sebelius also promised to begin working immediately with the National Association of Insurance Commissioners to develop a template for nationwide use by its members to provide information on the factors that are driving premium increases.

At the same time, AHIP Chief Executive Karen Ignagni urged Ms. Sebelius to consider "pursuing transparency [concerning costs] for hospitals, physicians, pharmaceutical and device companies, and other suppliers."

The letter said health insurers are "particularly concerned" that there are inadequate incentives in the legislation to bring everyone into the system, that new age-rating requirements would drive up costs for younger families, and that the proposed premium tax on health insurers would further drive up costs for consumers in the individual and small group markets.

To combat that, the letter said health insurers recommend broadening and expediting certain provisions of the Senate bill that focus on realigning incentives and promoting innovation.

Specifically, it asked that legislation attempt to reduce preventable hospital readmissions and hospital-acquired infections; to accelerate the adoption of payment reform and quality improvement incentives; to advance new payment reform models on a system-wide basis; and to improve the value of comparative effectiveness research and the proposed Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute.

On medical liability, the health insurers proposed a "fresh approach" which combines a safe harbor for following evidence-based medicine and a system to ensure harmed individuals are compensated adequately.

"As an alternative to the existing litigation system, we recommend an approach that offers protections for providers who follow established best practices and implement safe, accountable care models based on the latest scientific evidence," the letter said.

The proposals followed through on a commitment made by Ms. Ignagni to Ms. Sebelius last week to promptly provide input to the administration and Congress on ways that current legislative proposals could be modified in order to win industry support.

Ms. Ignagni promised to provide the data as part of a plea to have Congress and the Obama administration "turn away from vilification rather than problem solving" in drafting health care reform legislation.

In turn, Ms. Sebelius asked that health insurers provide greater transparency as a means of justifying high rate increases, such as the 39 percent rate hike request recently sought by a California insurer.