House Health Care Committee advances H.80 after debate over wording for advocate access to rate filings

The House Health Care Committee advanced H.80, an act relating to the Office of the Health Care Advocate, on March 14 after approving two amendments and a committee vote of 10-0-1 to move the bill forward.

The amendments change (1) language in the health insurance rate-review provision about when the Office of the Health Care Advocate may submit questions to the Green Mountain Care Board and (2) the healthcare advocate chapter to clarify access to confidential or proprietary information. Committee members spent much of the discussion debating whether the phrase "articulable nexus" — language the stakeholders agreed to — should remain or be replaced with a more commonly used term such as "reasonably related" or "connection."

Jen Carvey, legislative counsel, described the first amendment as replacing part of the bill's text in "8 PSA, section 40 62, the health insurance rate review statute" and said the proposed phrase "articulable nexus" came from New York corporate jurisdiction law. Carvey said, "I suggested…