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2004 SESSION

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HJ 85 Health care; joint subcommittee to study escalating cost thereof.

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

SUMMARY AS INTRODUCED:

Study; escalating cost of health care in Virginia; report. Establishes a joint subcommittee to study the escalating cost of health care in Virginia. The joint subcommittee shall identify and consider the impact of various influences on escalating health care costs, including dramatically rising prescription drug costs, related to factors such as increased patient demand and education as a result of direct consumer advertising, the introduction of new and expensive drug therapies by pharmaceutical companies, greater reliance on drug therapies by the physician community, and 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 copayment 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 also shall identify potential strategies and mechanisms to address the escalating cost of health care in Virginia, including chronic disease management techniques, provider payment incentive systems, the widespread distribution of comparative quality information about providers and effectiveness information about various medical procedures and tests, restrictive choices of providers, and cost-sharing approaches that provide increased incentives to patients to make cost-effective decisions about their use of health care resources.

The joint subcommittee shall complete its meetings for the first year by November 30, 2004, and for the second year by November 30, 2005, and the chairman shall submit to the Division of Legislative Automated Systems an executive summary of its findings and recommendations no later than the first day of the next Regular Session of the General Assembly for each year.


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