THE SOURCE BLOG

This is part of a series of summaries that highlight notable legislation and initiatives in health policy and reform of all 50 states. Check back on The Source as we roll out additional states each week. See Oregon page. Oregon is a leader in efforts to provide affordable, high-quality health care to every state resident. State lawmakers approved a proposed constitutional amendment that would provide Oregon residents the right to cost-effective, appropriate, and affordable health care, which will go to the voters. Lawmakers have also tasked the state health authority …

This is part of a series of summaries that highlight notable legislation and initiatives in health policy and reform of all 50 states. Check back on The Source as we roll out additional states each week. See Alaska page. According to data from the Council for Community and Economic Research, health services in Alaska are 70 – 200 percent more expensive than the national average. Many pressures influence Alaska’s health-care costs. They include expenses related to recruiting providers from out of state, lack of competition, the state’s small population. In …

This is part of a series of summaries that highlight notable legislation and initiatives in health policy and reform of all 50 states. Check back on The Source as we roll out additional states each week. See Alabama page. Alabama is one of the few states that prohibits most non-compete provisions in employment contracts for professionals, which include physicians. Specifically, the courts held that statutory exemptions allowing non-competes in employment contracts do not apply to professionals and that physicians and other medical providers are professionals under state law. While the …

This is part of a series of summaries that highlight notable legislation and initiatives in health policy and reform of all 50 states. Check back on The Source as we roll out additional states each week. See Rhode Island page. Rhode Island is an active state in advancing innovative policy initiatives to promote healthcare competition, price transparency, and cost containment. The state has long operated an all-payer claims database and additionally requires hospitals to provide patients with a cost estimate of anticipated services. The state also provides some limited protections …

In February of this legislative session, California Assemblymember Jim Wood introduced AB 1130, titled the California Health Care Quality and Affordability Act. Wood was prompted to draft AB 1130 when a 2020 California Health Care Foundation poll found that 84% of Californians surveyed cited health care affordability as an extremely or very important issue to them.[1] The bill would establish the Office of Healthcare Affordability (the “office”) within the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development (OSHPD) and be tasked with analyzing health care markets for cost trends and drivers …

This is part of a series of summaries that highlight notable legislation and initiatives in health policy and reform of all 50 states. Check back on The Source as we roll out additional states each week. See Ohio page. Ohio lawmakers have made strides in healthcare price transparency in recent sessions despite previous setbacks. In 2021, the state eliminated surprise medical bills for HMO and PPO enrollees for emergency services provided by out-of-network professionals, facilities, and ground ambulance service providers, and non-emergency services provided by out-of-network professionals at in-network facilities. …

In an encouraging boost to efforts to promote healthcare competition and price transparency, President Biden signed a sweeping executive order that targets consolidation and lack of competition in the healthcare industry, among others. As part of the Executive Order on Promoting Competition in the American Economy released on July 9th, the President targeted specific market players in the healthcare sector, including hospitals, health insurers, and prescription drug manufacturers. The Executive Order affirms the policy of the Biden Administration “to enforce the antitrust laws to combat the excessive concentration of industry, …

This is part of a series of summaries that highlight notable legislation and initiatives in health policy and reform of all 50 states. Check back on The Source as we roll out additional states each week. See New Jersey page. New Jersey is active in state market initiatives with a state-based insurance marketplace, Covered NJ, and a state-based reinsurance program that partially reimburses insurers for certain claims. In recent terms, New Jersey lawmakers are also considering legislation that would create a single-payer health plan by expanding Medicare to cover all of …

This month, we are proud to announce the publication of an issue brief by our Source colleagues Katherine L. Gudiksen, Alexandra D. Montague, and Jamie S. King on the topic of healthcare market consolidation—and more specifically, on what state and federal leaders are doing to deal with it. This month’s Roundup also discusses new research about a potential link between ACO participation and higher prices, hospitals’ lagging price transparency compliance efforts, surprise ambulance bills, the future of telehealth, enrollee satisfaction with public and private health plans, and state employee health …

In this mid-year issue of Litigation and Enforcement Highlights, we provide updates on  several pending healthcare transactions. As much of the country recovers from COVID-19, healthcare entities continue to actively pursue proposed mergers and affiliations that could further change the landscape of the healthcare market. In the last update, federal enforcement agencies saw a mixed bag of results to their enforcement efforts, with an FTC loss against Jefferson-Albert Einstein, a DOJ settlement with Geisinger-Evangelical, and several proposed mergers that buckled under antitrust scrutiny (see case reference table below). Since then, …