Today’s Quality and Cost Council meeting opened with discussion on budgetary and legislative issues. The Council will know by 11/15 if it will be able to move $400,000 from its’07 budget into its’08 budget. The Council also reviewed a letter expressing general support for quality bills that are before the legislature (including HB 2226/SB 1277, legislation for which HCFA is advocating, plus other infection and never-events reporting bills). Some Council members, while supporting the general letter of support, suggested that the Council should provide more detailed input in the future, as bills move.
There was also discussion about the health reform technical corrections bill being considered by the legislature and elements relating to the Council. The bill has language that prevents the Council from collecting data from self-insured plans. The Council hopes the language will change in the Senate version. Some plans (BCBS) can report data because of how their contracts are written, but others would not be able to do so.
The Council also elected new officers: Joseph Lawlor (rep of the National Assn. of Insurance and Financial Advisors) is Vice-Chair and Beth Capstick (State Auditor’s office) is the new Treasurer. Secretary Bigby serves as the Chair.
The rest of the meeting was a presentation by the Maine Health Information Center, the vendor hired to collect claims data from third-party payers. The goal is that cost data will start being collected and processed on 12/1. Some plans are ready to start providing data for testing purposes. Plans will also be required to submit data relating to race/ethnicity. The goal is for data to start being collected next July. The Boston Foundation is going to convene discussions on how to collect data, with an initial meeting in mid-November. There was discussion about a standardized way to collect data on race/ethnicity and on making sure those who collect data are trained on how to ask the questions so as not to turn off those who are being asked.
Following the full Council meeting, the Patient Safety Committee held its first meeting since committees were restructured. DPH Commissioner John Auerbach presented their work on infections reporting and reduction. The DPH expert infection panel will issue its final report in November. Also, regs relating to their recommendations will be presented to the Public Health Council at its November meeting and will be discussed in public hearings to have the Public Health Council vote on the regs in February.
The committee spent time talking about “never events” or “serious reportable events” (as a goal of the Council to eliminate by 2008) and it was agreed at its next meeting the committee will review the National Quality Forum list and what other states are doing in this arena. Auerbach also told the Council that “never events” are reported to DPH and to the Board of Registration in Medicine, and that information is publicly available but difficult to access. It is possible DPH could list some along with soon-to-be publicly-reported hospital-acquired infection rates. Also,there are bills before the Legislature that would require public reporting of never events. The committee will also discuss the possibility of using HSMR (Hospital Standardized Mortality Ratio), or another mortality measure, for quality improvement and/or public reporting.
Charlie Baker said: “This train is moving.” His fear is that the Council and DPH will be behind as CMS (and the MA legislature) move ahead in these areas.
