Senate Health committee advances continuing‑care reporting, reestablishes public‑health network study and creates palliative‑care study; ambulance payment bill,

Concord — The New Hampshire Senate Health and Human Services Committee on Wednesday moved a group of health-related measures forward, approving an amended bill that tightens reporting for continuing care retirement communities and advancing bills to study regional public‑health networks and palliative and hospice care while referring several budgetary or complex measures to further review.

The committee voted unanimously to recommend passage of Senate Bill 124 as amended, a package of updates to statutes governing continuing care retirement communities that adds reporting requirements and earlier notice to regulators and residents. Jennifer Smith, legislative director for the New Hampshire Insurance Department, told the committee the changes would not require a fiscal note because the department’s existing financial examiners can handle the additional reporting: “It has no impact to the department really,” Smith said. “Any of the changes…that can be handled in house by our financial examiners already.”

The committee also heard extensive testimony on a bill to reestablish a commission to study delivery of public‑health services through the state’s 13 regional public‑health networks. Senator Sue Prentiss, the bill’s prime sponsor, said the commission needs more time to complete a crosswalk of its recommendations with a companion gap analysis produced by the Department of Health and Human Services. “We don’t have an infrastructure for public health that’s set up…with a sustainable, robust funding stream,” Prentiss said, adding that volunteers and network leaders have conducted dozens of interviews and convenings but “we just need to finish our job.” Department witnesses,…