Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Health Survey Funding topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Department seeks $150,000 to cover higher bids for household health insurance survey
Summary
The Department of Health told the Senate Appropriations Committee its competitively bid Household Health Insurance Survey came in higher than expected, requiring a $150,000 increase to reach a final contract cost of $550,000.
The Vermont Department of Health asked the Senate Appropriations Committee on Jan. 21 for a $150,000 adjustment to the Household Health Insurance Survey contract, citing higher-than-expected bids that raised the final price to $550,000.
"The final contract cost is $550,000. So we need a $150,000 adjustment," Commissioner Mark Levine said. The department said the survey is typically fielded about every three years and provides information on uninsured and underinsured households and related demographics used for policy and program planning.
Levine said a stakeholder group that included legislative fiscal staff and legislative counsel recommended maintaining a sampling share consistent with prior fielding to preserve comparability with earlier surveys; reaching respondents is increasingly costly and drives some of the higher bid prices.
Committee members asked whether the survey is a one-time or ongoing expense; the department said it has been repeated about every three years. Members also asked whether Medicaid could be billed for survey costs; the department said it had not discussed that billing approach with Agency of Human Services central office and described the survey as a Vermont law directive intended to assist population-level health monitoring.
The transcript does not record a committee vote on this adjustment.
