Home > News

BOSTON Stepping in front of a planned announcement from state senators, House leaders late Thursday said theyll unveil a long-awaited health care payment reform and cost control bill on Friday.

According to House Speaker Robert DeLeos office, the bill will be unveiled during a 2:30 p.m. press conference in Nurses Hall with Health Care Financing Committee Co-chairman Rep. Steven Walsh, D-Lynn, and other members of the committee.

Senate President Therese Murray said last week the Senate planned to debate its version of Gov. Deval Patricks payment reform bill, filed in February 2011, in mid-May, after the bill emerged from the Senate Ways and Means Committee. This week, Murray said the Senate bill would be released next week.

Rumors began circulating on Beacon Hill Wednesday that a House health care bill might emerge on Friday, before the Senate bill. Until Thursday afternoon, House aides either declined to respond or declined comment when asked to confirm those plans or whether committee members were voting on a bill.

After 14 months of review, the Health Care Financing Committee last week released Patricks bill to the Senate, with Walsh saying the panel released the governors bill at the Senates request. Murray on Wednesday expressed surprise at Walshs assertion. On Thursday, committee co-chair Sen. Richard Moore, D-Uxbridge, said he was not aware of any plans by the House to release its own bill.

The Legislature and Gov. Patrick have passed a pair of major health care bills since Gov. Mitt Romney in 2006 signed the landmark law requiring Massachusetts residents to have health insurance or pay tax penalties. While both of those laws included components aimed at addressing rising health care costs, the payment reform bill is viewed as possibly the most aggressive effort to control costs while also striving towards the goal of improving and better coordinating patient care and reducing unnecessary testing.

Many health care industry executives are voluntarily moving toward systems reflecting goals of payment reform financial savings, more integrated and better quality care and a movement away from the fee-for-service payment model and lawmakers must decide whether and how heavily to regulate rates and how much of cost control they should leave to the private sector.

More:

Walsh-led health bill to be unveiled