Massachusetts Task Force To Recommend Increased Medicaid Rates to Hospitals, Other Initiatives to Improve Health System

Increasing Medicaid rates to hospitals and nursing homes is one of the recommendations expected in a final report to be released Jan. 28 by the 45-member Massachusetts Health Care Task Force, the Boston Globe reports. The task force, which includes representatives from hospitals, insurance companies and universities, was assembled in May 2000 by then Gov. Paul Cellucci (R) and the state Legislature after Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, one of the state's largest MCOs, was placed in state receivership. Besides the increased Medicaid rates, the report also is expected to recommend that the state:

• Increase monitoring and require more reporting by hospitals, nursing homes and insurers, so officials "can catch serious problems earlier";
• Develop "specific measures" for consumers to compare quality and cost of hospitals and nursing homes (Kowalczyk, Boston Globe, 1/28);
• Shift patients away from "high-cost health care settings," such as emergency rooms or teaching hospitals, into community hospitals or physicians' offices; and
• Provide financial support to hospitals and health care centers to "preserve access to essential services."

Report Criticized
Some task force members criticized the report's recommendations, the Globe reports. For instance, task force member Alan Sager, a health care economist at Boston University, said the report's recommendations are not "aggressive" enough (Boston Globe, 1/28). He added that the report "relies too heavily on market forces that are unreliable and gives too much weight to what is politically acceptable," the AP/Worcester Telegram & Gazette reports. "When the market fails in health care, the alternative to a greater governmental role is medical meltdown and anarchy. A greater public role is unattractive to many and it will be hard, but there's no choice," Sager said (AP/Worcester Telegram & Gazette, 1/28). The Massachusetts Nurses Association also criticized the report, saying it does "not go far enough" (Boston Globe, 1/28).