Gov. Charlie Baker signed a bill Tuesday afternoon that was whisked through the Legislature last week as part of a deal to avoid a high-priced ballot campaign fight between Partners HealthCare and a health care workers union over pricing disparities between major hospitals and community providers, according to the governor’s office.
The bill (H 4348) came about through negotiations between 1199 SEIU United Health Care Workers East and Partners brokered by the Baker administration and House and Senate leaders.
The deal called for as much as $120 million to be steered to hospitals around the state, including ailing community hospitals, through increased Medicaid reimbursements and a new $45 million fund financed through existing assessments on hospitals. That money in the past had been used to fund part of the operating budget of the Center for Health Information and Analysis.
The bill also calls for a reconstituted commission on hospital price variation, co-chaired by Sen. James Welch and Rep. Jeffrey Sanchez, to report on possible solutions to the broader problem by March of next year.
The union agree to drop its ballot initiative if Baker signed the legislation, which he did Tuesday five days after the House and Senate rushed the bill through both branches only a day after the contours of the agreement were announced.
