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Health Care Cost Transparency Board sets 2026 priorities and launches market oversight review
Summary
At its Jan. 28 meeting the Health Care Cost Transparency Board approved minutes, reviewed 2023 data showing cost growth above the 3.2% benchmark, and adopted a 2026 work plan focused on market oversight, pharmacy spending and expanding primary care.
The Health Care Cost Transparency Board on Jan. 28 reviewed data showing health-care spending growth above the board's 3.2% benchmark and unveiled a 2026 work plan centered on market oversight, pharmacy costs and primary-care investment.
Ross (staff) told the board the most recent data (covering calendar year 2023) show sustained increases in per-member spending and that "all markets exceeded the benchmark currently set at 3.2% growth per year." He said prescription drugs, professional services and hospital outpatient care were the largest drivers of the increase.
Director Ryan Moran, who called the meeting to order in his first session as chair, framed 2026 as a year for building on 2025's public hearing and data work and for converting findings into targeted strategies. Moran thanked interim chair Michelle Needham and welcomed new governor appointees to the board.
Staff proposed three priority areas for 2026: (1) market oversight, with an emphasis on ownership transparency and transaction review; (2) slowing spending growth, with pharmacy spending identified as the likely primary focus; and (3) increasing primary-care utilization, citing a state goal to grow primary-care spending toward 12% (the board said the current share is about 4%). Each topic is planned to occupy roughly three meetings, with interim work by advisory committees.
Board members pressed for both urgency and realism. Kim Wallace urged the board to "take transformative action" rather than only study problems; other members suggested using steering and advisory committees to solicit concrete commitments from hospitals, carriers and other stakeholders about what they can do to lower costs.
The board also handled routine business: members approved the October minutes by motion and recorded vote, and staff noted 18 people had provided public comment in the previous hearing. Staff said meeting materials and the recording will be posted online and that the board will continue market-oversight work in March, after stakeholder-advisory and data-advisory inputs.
