OCR Text |
Show encouragement to offer extravagant health insurance benefits. • Change the method of paying health care providers to promote fair and adequate compensation for all providers and to eliminate incentives to increase prices and provide unnecessary medical care. • Implement a comprehensive regulatory system for managing costs if the above recommended strategies fail to control health care costs. Part 3 - Develop Complementary Programs: Target professional needed services. education to • Improve long-term care: increase compassion and individual responsibility. • Improve the accuracy of quality assurance systems. • Initiate efforts to responsibly deal with ethical issues. • Initiate efforts to develop a strategy for malpractice reform. The Legislative Task Force on Health Care Access The 1992 Legislature extended the term and changed the membership of the Legislative Access to Health Care Task Force created by the 1991 Legislature. The 1992 Task Force, made up of five senators, eight representatives, and two members at large, met for one year to study and make recommendations to the 1993 Legislature on alternative strategies to extend health care access to Utahns who do not have medical insurance. Consideration was given to expanding the Medicaid program, the cost and methods of financing expanded health care access, the definition of basic health care, ways to encourage adoption of healthy lifestyles, and other appropriate health policy issues. Three legislative bills were introduced to implement reforms considered by the Task Force in the 1993 session. The Omnibus Healthcare Reform Act of 1993, which would have increased access to healthcare through the expansion of the Medicaid program was rejected. Utah Health Coverage and Cost Containment Commission (HB 67), established a twelve member Health Care Policy Option Commission charged with developing at least two proposals that shall provide health care coverage for all Utahns, limit increases in health care expenditures, and improve the quality of health care in Utah. Increasing Access to Healthcare (HB 130), established, but did not fund a grant program to expand availability of primary care in Utah, enacted modest insurance reforms, requires the Insurance Commissioner to undertake development of two health insurance plans that must be offered by all insurance providers operating in Utah, grants qualified immunity from malpractice to health care providers offering services on a charitable basis, and requires providers to disclose to patients their financial interest in facilities/services to which they may refer the patient. Health Data Initiatives CDC Assessment Initiative Utah will participate in the Centers for Disease Control Assessment Initiative. The goal of this initiative is to increase the capacity of state and local health departments to monitor at least 75% of the objectives defined by Healthy People 2000, to analyze and interpret these data, and to use this information for policy development and program management. Doug Vilnius, MS, MPA, Director of the Division of Community Health Services, Utah Department of Health (UDOH), will direct Utah's project, called Assessment Capacity Toward 2000 Program (ACT-2000). Catherine Schumacher, MD, MSPH, is the Project Manager. Utah's Health: An Annual Review 1993 141 |