Press Release: Catalyst for Payment Reform and UC Hastings Release Database of State Laws Impacting Health Care Policy Reform Efforts

SAN FRANCISCO – June 17, 2019 – Given the current political environment at the federal level, efforts to reform health care may largely be left to states in the coming years. To create a resource for policymakers, researchers, health care purchasers and other stakeholders in state efforts to improve health care, Catalyst for Payment Reform (CPR) and The Source on Healthcare Price and Competition at the University of California, Hastings College of the Law (UC Hastings Law) partnered to create the Database of State Laws Impacting Healthcare Cost and Quality.

The new, publicly available, database houses state legislation governing price transparency, provider market power, provider payment, provider networks, and health insurance benefits for all 50 states. Given that each state’s legal and regulatory environment impacts reform options, this database aims to help state-based stakeholders select the innovations most suitable to their environments as well as to identify laws and regulations other states have in place that could support their efforts to create a higher-value health care system.

“There are lots of people working on health care reform, but they are often doing it in siloes,” said Jaime King, JD, PhD, professor of law at the UC Hastings College of the Law and executive editor for The Source on Healthcare Price and Competition. “Creating a database with CPR of all state laws related to health care cost and quality was a natural extension of our ongoing efforts to provide resources that track legal and regulatory developments in health care.”

States have taken a variety of approaches to rein in rising health care costs and improve the quality of health care so far, such as implementing global budgets, restricting out-of-network bills, setting and monitoring payment rates, operating all-payer claims databases (APCDs), repealing certificate of need laws, and relaxing scope of practice laws, among others.

“The employers and other health care purchasers CPR work with often have innovative ideas about how to purchase health care to provide employees with access to high value care,” said Suzanne Delbanco, PhD, executive director of CPR. “These efforts can be thwarted by state legal and regulatory environments. We hope it will be helpful for purchasers and others to have a resource that identifies at the state level what laws are in place that impact quality, efficiency and affordability.”

Support for the database was provided by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the views expressed in this resource do not necessarily reflect the views of the Foundation.

About The Source on Healthcare Price and Competition

The Source on Healthcare Price & Competition is an independent, nonprofit initiative of the UCSF/UC Hastings Consortium on Law, Science & Health Policy that serves as a multi-disciplinary, central resource for information and analysis about healthcare cost and competition. The Source offers a diverse array of stakeholder perspectives on the issues associated with healthcare prices and markets, such as provider leverage, antitrust enforcement, and price transparency, and aims to serve as a forum for the important discussion of change within the U.S. healthcare system. Visit The Source at sourceonhealthcare.org and follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn.

About Catalyst for Payment Reform

Catalyst for Payment Reform is an independent, non-profit organization working on behalf of large employers and other health care purchasers to catalyze employers, public purchasers and others to implement strategies that produce higher-value health care and improve the functioning of the health care marketplace. For more information visit: www.catalyze.org and follow on Twitter and LinkedIn.