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2004 SESSION

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HJ 143 Health insurance industry; joint subcommittee to study operations and escalating cost thereof.

Introduced by: Robert G. Marshall | all patrons    ...    notes | add to my profiles

SUMMARY AS INTRODUCED:

Study; escalating costs of health insurance in Virginia; report. Establishes a 10-member joint subcommittee to study the escalating costs of health insurance in Virginia, by identifying and considering the impact of various influences such as the dramatically rising prescription drug costs; increased patient demand and education for new drugs and other new medical therapies; the effects of direct consumer advertising; greater reliance on drug therapies by the physician community; efforts by drug manufacturers to increase market share; the aging of the workforce; increased obesity and other health risk factors among various age groups; critical labor shortages for certain medical professionals such as nurses, physical therapists, and pharmacists; escalating medical malpractice insurance premiums; consolidations of for-profit health care provider groups, which have enabled providers to negotiate higher reimbursement levels and made it more difficult to contain costs; mergers of health insurers with health care providers, which may result in less competition and increased costs; the erosion in value of fixed-dollar co-payment levels over time relative to the cost of medical care to the patient, which may encourage greater use of services; limited information about the effectiveness of many medical tests and procedures; and significant amounts of uncompensated care provided for many individuals without health insurance. The joint subcommittee must also collect and analyze data relating to the past and present business practices of the insurance companies, without intruding into the realm of proprietary business information, to determine the companies' yearly total premiums, surplus funds, net incomes, and assets; the salaries of executives and bonuses or other perquisites for executives; workforce size and makeup; actual costs of the delivered services to the company, as negotiated with health care providers; the effects of conversion to stock companies; and the effects of any changes in corporate documents or any other matters relating to company structure and form that may be relevant to costs. This two-year study group must report by way of an executive summary posted by the first day of the 2005 and 2006 Sessions. The executive summary will note whether a report will be submitted.


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