Tracking Reform
Quality Improvement
State Misses Deadline for Peer Grouping Reports
The Minnesota Department of Health missed the October 15 deadline, as defined by state law, for issuing total cost of care reports to provider groups. The reports were to have compared hospitals and clinics on cost and quality measures as part of the state’s provider peer-grouping initiative. It now appears that providers will not see their data anytime this year. The department missed the deadline because of difficulties getting data from third parties and the complexity of the effort. The missed deadline also means the reports to the public will be released later than expected.
Quality Reporting Webinar to be Held
The MMA will outline the process for clinics to participate in Minnesota’s mandatory quality-reporting initiative in a webinar November 9 and December 1. Minnesota’s 2008 health care reform law requires the commissioner of health to establish a set of measures for public reporting on the quality of health care across the state. Go to www.mnmed.org to learn more.
Federal Reform
Legal Challenge Moves Forward in Florida
A federal judge in Florida ruled in October that a lawsuit that challenges the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act’s requirement that people carry health insurance could move forward. The lawsuit was brought by officials from 20 states. Minnesota is not part of the lawsuit. In April, Attorney General Lori Swanson rejected Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s request that the state challenge the constitutionality of the federal health care reform law because it requires individuals to buy insurance.
State Medical Groups Bypass Governor Pawlenty
The MMA, the Minnesota Hospital Association, and the Minnesota Council of Health Plans sent a letter to U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius in October containing comments about rules being developed for health insurance exchanges. By doing so, the three groups circumvented Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who had decided against sending the letter because it did not include language he requested. Although the deadline for submitting comments had passed, the groups sent the letter in hope of influencing health insurance exchange rules that are being developed by the federal government. The letter calls for the federal government to allow states maximum flexibility in establishing exchanges.
Minnesota Insurers Drop Child-Only Policies
Insurers in Minnesota and across the United States have stopped offering child-only policies in response to a provision in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. As of September 23, individual child-only health plans were supposed to be available to all comers. However, insurers stopped offering the policies fearing that some people will try to buy one only after a child gets sick. The law doesn’t compel insurers to offer child-only plans.
Health Care Homes
State Starts Processing Health Care Home Payments
In October, the Minnesota Department of Human Services began processing its first claims for care coordination services by certified health care homes. Currently, 12 clinics are certified as health care homes. Another 106 are working toward certification. The state also created a website where patients can search for a clinic that is certified as a health care home: www.health.state.mn.us/healthreform/homes/certifiedhchs/index.html.
Clinics Working Toward Health Care Home Certification
Clinics that have or intend to apply for certification.....38
Site visit scheduled.....44
Site visit completed.....24
Total.....106
Source: Minnesota Department of Health, as of October 18, 2010