Preparing to enter the unknown terrain of federally legislated health care, Westchester County Association officials this fall will revive their blue ribbon task force on health care reform in a regional coalition with hospitals and other health care providers.
The WCA will be joined in its renewed and broadened health care advocacy and educational support for businesses by the Suburban Healthcare Alliance, a 54-hospital coalition that includes 30 members of the Northern Metropolitan Hospital Association (NorMet) in the Hudson Valley region and 24 Long Island hospitals represented by the Nassau Suffolk Hospital Council.
The WCA”™s decision to reactivate its health care committee after a hiatus of about one year was welcomed by Kevin Dahill, who this summer was named to succeed Neil Abitabilo as president and CEO of Newburgh-based NorMet. Dahill also continues to lead the Long Island hospital council, where he has served eight years. The Long Islander is familiar to Westchester”™s business community, having served as president of the former New York United Hospital in Port Chester from 1994 through 2001.
New, broader agenda needed
With the enactment this year of the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the regional coalition needs a new and broader agenda than the one it took to Albany in recent years, Dahill told WCA members at the business group”™s recent dinner in Tarrytown.
Foremost on that agenda is close monitoring of the federal health care reform bill. The first provisions of the sweeping legislation recently took effect and it will be fully implemented in 2014, when insurance exchanges will begin operating in states.
“I think in the past the Suburban Healthcare Alliance was seen as having one agenda ”“ market conduct of insurers,” Dahill said in a phone interview. While that lobbying battle in Albany was “a worthy and noble effort,” the business and health care coalition must turn its attention to the federal bill, which Dahill described as “chock-a-block full of mandates to employers” whose regulatory details and impact are unknown.
Following the November election, “There will be some tinkering with this law, but it”™s not going to be repealed,” the hospitals chief told his WCA audience.
Insurers will be a focus
The coalition”™s broader agenda still must address insurers”™ conduct in the marketplace, Dahill said. While businesses as employers purchase health care services provided by hospitals, “Insurers have dominated this transaction to the point where it doesn”™t make sense,” he said. The coalition must create an environment in which businesses work directly with providers, he said.
As part of the health care reform roll-out, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will test cost-saving demonstration projects around the country built around new payment mechanisms. Dahill said the suburban coalition could propose an innovative regional project to federal officials. “That affords us a wonderful opportunity to have a discussion, employers and providers, so that there”™s more of a direct transactional relationship, so that we redefine the role of the insurers so that they don”™t have as much power as they have.”
At the state level, Dahill said state senators and assembly members representing the Hudson Valley and Long Island need to be reminded “that they represent the suburban interests here and we do expect them to work with us on the issues that are important to us.” He said the hospital alliance will push for repeal of the year-old Metropolitan Transportation Authority payroll tax on employers outside New York City. “That”™s an example of an initiative that we can work with the business community on,” he said.
Other business groups included
Citing strength in numbers, Dahill said the business and health care coalition must be rolled out to include other business groups. He said he already has contacted the Long Island Association, the region”™s largest business group, and will meet with business association executives throughout the region about joining the coalition.
WCA President William M. Mooney Jr. said his group will announce details of its renewed health care program in early November. “I don”™t know where this journey is going to go yet, but I know it”™s a much-needed journey,” he said.
