Bill > H2072

This bill directs the Health Policy Commission, a state agency responsible for healthcare oversight, to annually analyze and report on how the costs of specialty drugs, which are typically high-cost medications for complex conditions, affect Massachusetts' healthcare cost containment benchmark, with the first report due by July 1, 2015, and subsequent reports each year. The commission must also discuss these findings and their implications at its annual cost containment hearings. Additionally, the bill amends existing law to ensure that these public hearings include a representative range of participants, such as academic medical centers, disproportionate share hospitals (hospitals serving a large number of low-income patients), community hospitals, ambulatory surgical centers, community health centers, pharmaceutical companies (including those specializing in specialty and generic drugs), major private health insurance providers, managed care organizations, the Group Insurance Commission, municipalities, and provider organizations, including accountable care organizations (groups of doctors, hospitals, and other providers who coordinate care for patients). The Attorney General and the Health Policy Commission itself can also identify additional witnesses.