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On March 29, 2017, the Massachusetts Health Policy Commission voted to decrease its annual health care cost growth benchmark from 3.6 percent to a 3.1 percent, effective in 2018. The benchmark applies to hospitals, certain physician groups and individual health insurers. The Commission also voted to finalize regulations to require those entities that fail to comply with the benchmark to file and follow performance improvement plans. Non-compliant entities will be subject to oversight by the Commission, during which they will be required to file monthly progress reports and demonstrate that they are taking steps to slow their cost growth. The regulations also authorize the Commission to assess civil penalties against non-compliant entities in certain circumstances, such as when an entity willfully neglects to file a required performance improvement plan.
Continue Reading Massachusetts’ Health Policy Commission Further Limits Health Care Cost Growth

Massachusetts recently released a final regulation concerning its health information exchange, which became effective February 10, 2017. Under this regulation, Provider Organizations are required to connect to Massachusetts’ statewide health information exchange known as the Mass HIway. Provider Organizations include Massachusetts acute care hospitals, community health centers, and medical ambulatory practices. These regulations continue the push toward increased interoperability of patient medical records across health care providers, in an effort to improve the ability of a provider to see the full medical picture of a patient.

Provider Organizations must connect to the Mass HIway over the course of a four year phased-in timeline. For acute care hospitals, year one begins on February 10, 2017. For all other Provider Organizations except small community health centers, year one begins on January 1, 2018. Small community health centers’ first year begins January 1, 2019. Provider Organizations must “connect” to the Mass HIway during each applicable year as follows:
Continue Reading Massachusetts Issues Mass HIway Regulations