BOSTON — The House on Tuesday night passed health care reform legislation that uses $337 million in new assessments to stabilize community hospitals and charts a new course to help the Legislature make decisions about scope of practice changes for medical professionals.
The vote was 117-32, with Democrats voting for the bill and Republicans nearly united against it.
The new assessments — $247.5 million on insurers and $90 million on the largest hospitals — are the centerpiece of a bill that House Majority Leader Ronald Mariano said tries to keep in play lower-cost community hospitals as payment reforms and consolidations shake out in the health care industry.
“It is our hope that over the three years of this bill, and the three years of support that these hospitals will get, the dynamic in health care will change,” Mariano said. “And I’m not going to say we won’t be here three years from now making adjustments on what health care looks like then, but we will at least know that we have done things to put these hospitals on a very strong and firm footing.”
The House reduced the planned assessments Tuesday night, adopting an amendment offered by Lowell Democrat Rep. David Nangle that cut the original $330 million assessment on insurers and $120 million on larger hospitals to $247.5 million and $90 million, respectively.
Under the bill, grants to community hospitals will be based on factors such as patient acuity and patient mix. Mariano said the hope is the move away from fee-for-service to global payments will boost the community hospitals’ share of the commercial market.