Senate committee reviews H.482 to give Green Mountain Care Board limited power to reduce hospital rates and appoint independent observer

Representative Black, reporting H.482 to the Senate Health and Welfare Committee on March 27, described the bill as a targeted, time-limited tool for regulators to protect the solvency of Vermont domiciled insurers while limiting harm to hospitals.

“I have been reading this bill for the last 2 weeks since you passed it out. Our committee has already started taking testimony on it. I am excited. I am grateful to all of you for the enormous amount of work that you put into this. And this is a fantastic road map of where we need to be,” Representative Black said.

The bill, as outlined by Ben Cardi of the Legislative Council, would give the Green Mountain Care Board (GMCB) authority in narrowly defined circumstances to reduce reimbursement rates paid by a Vermont-domiciled insurer to one or more Vermont hospitals or hospital networks. “We are on screen looking at h 4 82, which is an act relating to Green Mountain Care Board authority to adjust a hospital's reimbursement rates and for point a hospital observer,” Cardi said.

Why it matters: the measure is intended as a remedy if a Vermont-based insurer faces an acute threat to solvency as measured under the state’s risk-based capital triggers (statutory measures cited in Title 8). By statute the GMCB sets…