Committee advances bill letting Green Mountain Care Board adjust hospital rates and appoint independent observers

BURLINGTON, Vt. — The Senate Committee on Health & Welfare on May 9 amended and reported H.482, a bill that would give the Green Mountain Care Board conditional authority to reduce commercial reimbursement rates payable to hospitals if a domestic health insurer faces an acute, immediate threat to solvency, and to appoint independent observers to monitor hospitals under limited circumstances.

Under the draft the committee advanced, the board may order a reduction in reimbursement rates only after consulting with the Commissioner of Financial Regulation and finding that the insurer’s risk‑based capital has triggered a regulatory action‑level event (referenced in the bill as "APSA 8 0 4"). The board must limit any rate reduction to what is necessary to remediate the solvency threat and must consider competing financial obligations of both the insurer and the affected hospital. The bill specifies that reductions may be applied only to…