Senate Health and Welfare reviews committee bill to rework Vermont health payment and delivery system

The Senate Health and Welfare Committee convened Feb. 28 to review a draft committee bill that would restructure health care payment and delivery in Vermont, including a phased start for reference‑based pricing, timelines for global hospital budgets, creation of an integrated statewide health care delivery plan, new data‑integration work, and appropriations for staff and implementation.

The chair of the Senate Health and Welfare Committee opened the session by saying the committee has taken extensive testimony and developed a framework over the summer and fall, and that members would continue to refine the committee bill after town‑meeting break. The chair said, “we have been through an extenuating extensive process,” and asked committee members to listen to the bill language as presented.

The Office of Legislative Counsel’s Jen Kirby walked members through the draft. Kirby said the bill — titled for now “an act relating to health care payment and delivery system reform” — moves hospital budget and payment reform provisions to the front of the text and amends duties of the Green Mountain Care Board to align with the bill’s reforms. Kirby described a new subsection directing the board to establish reference‑based prices for payments to health care professionals and hospitals, noting the statute would set reference prices initially as a percentage of Medicare reimbursement for the same service but allow the board to later update prices using a separate growth benchmark.

Kirby said the bill directs the Green Mountain Care Board to begin implementing reference‑based pricing for commercial health insurers’ payments to Vermont hospitals in hospital fiscal year 2026 (the period beginning Oct. 2025). The bill also would allow the board, in consultation with the Blueprint for Health and other agencies, to…