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Vermont Medical Society urges caution on benchmark choices, asks for primary-care payment planning in S.126 debate
Summary
The Vermont Medical Society told the committee that benchmarks for reference-based pricing should be flexible, cautioned against using net patient revenue alone to regulate hospitals because it mixes volume and cost, and urged a stakeholder process to design primary care payment alternatives if AHEAD does not move forward.
Jessa Barnard, executive director of the Vermont Medical Society, told the legislative committee that her organization supports the broad goal of S.126 but urged more granular work on benchmarks, payment models for primary care, and how hospital budgets account for services where volume should increase.
"How can we use some of our payment systems to incentivize the type of care we all agree on are critical for access, prevention, primary care type services," Barnard said, summarizing members' concerns that some payment approaches could unintentionally penalize services the state wants to expand.
Barnard recommended flexibility in selecting benchmarks for reference-based pricing. She noted…
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