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1994 SESSION


SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 126
Requesting the Joint Commission on Health Care, in cooperation with the Commissioner of Insurance and the Commissioner of Health, to continue its study of organized health services delivery systems.
Agreed to by the Senate, February 8, 1994
Agreed to by the House of Delegates, February 25, 1994

WHEREAS, it is widely recognized that universal access to health care will be unaffordable in the absence of successful cost-containment efforts; and

WHEREAS, it is also recognized that cost containment should not be achieved at the expense of access to high-quality, necessary health care services; and

WHEREAS, various national health care reform proposals envision the use of organized health care delivery systems as a means of delivering cost-effective health care services; and

WHEREAS, a variety of organized delivery systems are developing across the Commonwealth, including hospital systems, physician-hospital organizations, health maintenance organizations, and other types of systems; and

WHEREAS, the Joint Commission on Health Care has studied organized delivery systems pursuant to Senate Joint Resolution No. 316 of the 1993 Session; and

WHEREAS, the Joint Commission on Health Care has specifically reviewed the community health network model of service delivery and financing; and

WHEREAS, this model would feature locally organized provider networks which provide patients with a continuum of health services, are accountable for costs and quality, and possibly assume insurance risk for the provision of services; and

WHEREAS, review and discussion of this model have raised a number of important questions related to the appropriate direction of health care reform in Virginia; and

WHEREAS, such questions must be resolved as part of the Commonwealth's ongoing health care reform efforts; now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED by the Senate, the House of Delegates concurring, That the Joint Commission on Health Care, in cooperation with the Commissioner of Insurance and the Commissioner of Health, be requested to continue its study of organized health services delivery systems; and, be it

RESOLVED FURTHER, That the Joint Commission on Health Care, in cooperation with the Commissioner of Insurance and the Commissioner of Health, examine the following issues: (i) the value of community health network characteristics, such as local organization, managed care, accountability for costs and quality, and the assumption of insurance risk; (ii) the similarities and differences between community health networks and health maintenance organizations; (iii) the extent to which statutory and regulatory requirements for health maintenance organizations should also be applied to community health networks which assume insurance risk, particularly with respect to protection against insolvency; and (iv) the extent to which the most desirable features of the community health network model should be required of health maintenance organizations, health plans, and other modes of health care delivery and finance; and, be it

RESOLVED FINALLY, That the Joint Commission on Health Care, in cooperation with the Commissioner of Insurance and the Commissioner of Health, shall solicit input from health care purchasers, health care providers and third party payers.

The Commission shall include its findings and recommendations in its 1994 annual report to the Governor and the General Assembly in accordance with the procedures of the Division of Legislative Automated Systems for the processing of legislative documents.

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