Healthcare Affordability Board revisits hospital-sector target method after hospitals urge changes and warn on access

The Healthcare Affordability Board on March 12 reviewed staff follow-up on the proposed hospital-sector target methodology, presented additional hospital feedback and advisory committee input, and heard extended public comment from hospital officials, community representatives and unions.

Board staff said they met with more than a dozen hospitals and health systems to test options for identifying “disproportionately high-cost hospitals” and to consider measures that would justify a lower spending target for some facilities. Vishal Pagani, Deputy Director for the Office of Cost and Analysis (OCA), told the board, “By the end of this month, we plan to post an advance notice of emergency rulemaking for the regulatory proposal online,” and explained the Office would submit the package to the Office of Administrative Law for review.

Why it matters: the board is working to translate the statewide spending benchmark into sector- and provider-level signals that identify outlier hospitals whose prices or growth substantially exceed peers. Hospitals, public hospitals and county advocates argued the current proposals risk harming access to care in small and rural communities and urged the board to refine definitions, add thresholds for low-discharge facilities, and account for system-level finances.

Most of the board discussion focused…