FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 7, 2004

South Burlington Legislator introduces Medisave

Rep. Frank Mazur (R, South Burlington) announced today that he is introducing legislation called Medisave that creates a state web site to include cash fee payment schedules for procedures and related quality outcomes for all 14 hospitals in the state. The bill is designed to empower health care consumers with the information they need to make cost-effective decisions.

Today there is little a consumer can do to compare the cost of hospital-based medical procedures. Fletcher Allen indicated insurance reimbursement rates are proprietary and not available to the public.

Rep. Mazur said “People with insurance get the best price for hospital-based care; the uninsured get the highest price and in some cases, an aggressive collection agency, if they can’t pay the bill. A cash fee schedule for hospital procedures and related quality performance outcomes should be public knowledge and published.”

The full effectiveness of “consumer-driven” health care is diminished in proportion to the amount of consumer information available. Mazur thinks if you can get the cost and quality of a car from numerous sources, consumers should be able to get the same for a medical procedure, and should be able to become a “good shopper” that a competitive system needs.

Health care administrative costs have been estimated to be as high as 30% and providers indicate insurance paperwork consumes hours of administrative time and physician’s scrutiny. Cash payment for services rather than direct insurance payment is a new trend in medicine where the patient chooses the care and pays at the time of service, at a reduced cost.

Another provision of the bill is to study the feasibility of publishing insured charges for hospital procedures on a state web site.

Rep. Mazur believes that the new high deductible Health Savings Account created by the Medicare reform bill will motivate consumers to consume health services wisely. They will be inclined to check prices and work to keep costs down because any unspent account balance could accumulate and roll over from year to year.

“This Medisave bill is an empowerment tool to challenge today’s health cost and quality mystery,” said Mazur.

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Thank you for your calls and notes. I can be reached at 658-3975 (home), 1-800-322-5616 or 228-2228 (State House) and via e-mail.

Rep. Frank Mazur
South Burlington