PROVIDENCE – The first meeting of the R.I. Healthcare Reform Commission convened March 3 at The Rhode Island Foundation, as some 150 members crowded into the first-floor meeting room to hear R.I. Lt. Gov. Elizabeth H. Roberts detail the commission’s 2011 work plan and proposed working groups and leadership councils.
In terms of deliverables, Roberts outlined four key areas of focus: building the infrastructure of health care reform, building the primary care and community care work force, development of the state’s health insurance exchange and payment reform.
The full commission, which meets quarterly, is meant to serve as the conduit for two-way “robust” communication, Roberts said. Decision-making regarding policy resides with the commission’s five-person executive committee, which Roberts chairs, and includes the R.I. Department of Administration Director Richard Licht, R.I. Health Insurance Commissioner Christopher F. Koller and Secretary of the Office of Health and Human Services Steven M. Costantino.
The commission received an update on the development of a Rhode Island health insurance exchange. Legislation to create the basic structural framework had been filed by R.I. Senate President M. Teresa Paiva Weed. A companion bill was filed this week by Rep. Brian Patrick Kennedy, chairman of the R.I. House Corporations Committee.
Under a $6 million federal grant, Rhode Island is currently collaborating with Massachusetts to create the technology platform for such an insurance exchange. The collaborative work will develop the technical components, including the Web-based interface and secure data transfer, Angela M. Sherwin, principal policy associate at the R.I. Office of the Health Insurance Commissioner, reported to the group.
Roberts praised the reestablishment of a legislative joint committee on health care, which had not been functioning for a number of years, which she said she saw as a way to build consensus around pending health care legislation. The last co-chairs of the joint committee had been Roberts and Costantino when they were both serving in the R.I. General Assembly.
The next full meeting of the commission is scheduled for June 2 at 9 a.m.
The most promising feature of this report is that “Rhode Island is currently collaborating with Massachusetts to create the technology platform for such an insurance exchange.” The potential for Rhode Island’s having a well-functioning technology platform for its health exchange is far greater with Mass. involved.