Senate Health & Welfare hears experts urge stakeholder assessment, one‑text approach for S.197 primary care payment reform

Montpelier — The Senate Health & Welfare Committee heard expert testimony on March 10 on S.197, a bill to redesign primary care payment, with witnesses urging a formal stakeholder assessment and a collaborative drafting process before finalizing statutory language.

Chair Senator Jenny Lyons opened the hearing and said the committee wanted “critical testimony” tied to S.197, focusing on how to identify payment processes, where funding would come from and how it should be distributed. She introduced Bob Bordone, described in the hearing as a senior fellow at Harvard Law School, and Dr. Peter Pronovost of University Hospitals in Ohio.

Bordone told the committee that a stakeholder assessment is a structured, evidence‑gathering phase that identifies which parties matter to a negotiation, maps their underlying interests (not just stated positions) and recommends whether a negotiated approach is ripe. "Stakeholder assessment helps map interests," he said, and can show whether…