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Senate accepts conference report on S.126 to advance statewide health system reforms, including reference-based pricing and data integration
Summary
The Vermont Senate accepted and adopted the committee of conference report on S.126, approving a broad package of health system reforms that direct the Green Mountain Care Board to pursue reference-based pricing, global budgets, a statewide strategic plan and enhanced health-data interoperability.
The Vermont Senate accepted and adopted the report of the committee of conference on S.126, an act relating to health care payment and delivery system reform, approving a package of structural and operational changes intended to shift how the state pays for and organizes health care.
Conference conferees described the bill as directing the Green Mountain Care Board to pursue reference-based pricing and global hospital budgeting beginning in the late 2020s and to standardize hospital budget submissions. The report requires the board to consider a statewide health care delivery strategic plan when reviewing hospital budgets and authorizes the board to recommend corrective action for hospital networks whose financial operations are inconsistent with the plan.
The bill creates a new Vermont steering committee for comprehensive primary health care, a 16-member body charged with assessing primary-care needs, recommending workforce recruitment and retention strategies, proposing sustainable primary-care funding models, identifying access improvements and administrative-burden reductions, and advising the strategic plan and reference-based pricing for primary care. Conference remarks said this complements existing advisory groups focused on primary care.
The conference report also includes provisions to develop a unified health data space to improve clinical interoperability and patient access to records, and it authorizes incentive grants from an existing health information technology fund (the bill appropriates $2,000,000 from that fund to support hospital grants for interoperability and telehealth). The Department of Financial Regulation is asked to report on domestic insurer sustainability, and the Green Mountain Care Board is to report on implementation, reference-based pricing and global budgets in its annual reporting.
Several reporting deadlines and effective dates were described on the floor; the committee reporter identified January 2028 as the date for the statewide strategic plan and said certain appropriation sections would take effect July 1, 2025. The motion to accept and adopt the conference report was approved by voice vote.
