The Massachusetts House-Senate Conference Committee began meeting last week to iron out differences between the two chambers’ state budgets for Fiscal Year 2020, and MHA weighed in with the conferees to explain the healthcare community’s thoughts about some important budget items.
The conference committee is led by the chairs of the House and Senate Ways & Means Committees, Rep. Aaron Michlewitz (D-Boston) and Sen. Michael Rodrigues (D-Westport), along with Ways & Means Vice Chairs Rep. Denise Garlick (D-Needham) and Sen. Cindy Friedman (D-Arlington), and the committee’s ranking members Rep. Todd Smola (R-Warren), and Sen. Viriato “Vinny” deMacedo (R-Plymouth).
The final totals of each chamber’s budget proposal are similar – about $42.8 billion – but the two bills differ in a variety of instances. Focusing on the healthcare components of the document, MHA asked conferees to support, among other items, the Senate’s line items that would devote $250,000 to expand the Massachusetts Consultation Service for the Treatment of Addiction and Pain, and $300,000 to increase the availability of nasal naloxone rescue kits given to patients prior to discharge following treatment for an opioid overdose. The Senate budget plan also includes a provision to put in place next fiscal year a method to cover reimbursement for the provision of the kits through hospital EDs.
One ongoing budget element that hospitals hope to resolve this year involves the Health Safety Net, which covers the cost of care to the hundreds of thousands of residents that remain without comprehensive insurance. MHA is asking the conferees to approve language that would mandate that the state contribute $15 million to help fund the Health Safety Net. The Health Safety Net is consistently underfunded; this year’s shortfall is estimated to be $69 million, which hospitals must cover alone.