Pennsylvania Governor Signs Four Health-Care Bills That Will Reduce Costs, Improve...

Pennsylvania Governor Signs Four Health-Care Bills That Will Reduce Costs,
Improve Access and Quality

Three of the four bills were part of the Governor's Prescription for
Pennsylvania

HARRISBURG, Pa., June 10 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Governor Edward G. Rendell
today signed three health care bills that were part of his Prescription for
Pennsylvania health care reform plan and a fourth that was originally proposed
as part of the Senate Republican package of health care bills.

"I'd like to recognize the good work of the legislature in working together to
pass these bills which will help provide health care coverage for thousands of
uninsured Pennsylvanians, reduce the cost of health care and will improve
health care quality for all Pennsylvanians," Governor Rendell said.

The House and Senate had passed almost identical health care bills and the
Governor had urged them to work in a bipartisan manner to enact the bills
since there was no disagreement on substance.

"One of these bills will be the answer to the prayers of parents whose kids
will be graduating from college and will be kicked off their health insurance
policies because they've reached the maximum age. Parents and kids are
stressed because the kids are now uninsured and are having trouble finding
jobs, with health insurance, due to the current economic situation.

"Another bill will help relieve the worry of the employee of a small business
who is about to lose his or her job and will now be given the opportunity to
keep and pay for health insurance for a short period of time while searching
for another job or being rehired by the employer as the economy recovers.

"We will end the practice of paying for medical errors by making it illegal
for health care providers to charge when they've made a serious, preventable
medical mistake. Can you imagine any other business that charges you to fix a
mistake that it has made? And we will continue to benefit from the
groundbreaking work started 23 years ago by the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost
Containment Council, the nation's premier health care data collection and
reporting agency."

The four health care bills the Governor signed today are:

HB 84 - part of the Governor's Rx for PA, this bill prohibits health care
providers from seeking reimbursement for a serious, preventable medical error,
often called "never events."

Approximately 140 patients who experience an adverse medical event that might
be both serious and preventable die each year in Pennsylvania hospitals. The
total charges for the hospital stays in which these deaths occur amounts to
approximately $21.8 million dollars. Approximately 3,500 other patients a year
survive an adverse event for which charges are an addition $316 million a
year.

In January 2008, the Department of Public Welfare implemented a policy to
prohibit hospitals to bill Medicaid for 27 "never events," such as operating
on the wrong patient, medication errors that result in death or disability and
bad blood transfusions.

The House bill was sponsored by Rep. Tony M. DeLuca (D) and a similar bill was
introduced in the Senate by Sen. Donald C. White (R).

SB 189 - this bill was also part of Rx for PA and will allow uninsured,
single, adult children up to age 30 to be covered by their parents' health
insurance plan. Parents must pay the premiums and the coverage hinges on the
employers' willingness to offer the benefit to parents. This bill will go into
effect in six months and coverage will be available on a rolling basis after
that as contracts are renewed.

According to the 2008 survey by the Insurance Department, there are 383,298
uninsured Pennsylvanians between ages 19-29, which accounts for 40 percent of
the total uninsured population. While not all of these Pennsylvanians would be
able to be covered by a parent's policy, this will be an important step to
increasing access to health care for this population.

The Senate bill was sponsored by Sen. Jake Corman (R) and the HB 838 which
mirrored it was sponsored by Rep. Mark Longietti (D).

HB 1089 - Federal COBRA law, which allows those who lose their jobs to
continue paying for health insurance through their former employers for a
period of time, applies to all employers with 20 or more employees. The
concept of providing continuation coverage to small businesses with fewer than
20 employees was initially proposed by Sen. Corman as SB 189. This bill, which
was sponsored in the House by Rep. Robert F. Matzie, allows employees of small
businesses who lose their jobs to continue receiving their health insurance at
their expense for up to nine months.

This is particularly important because the federal stimulus plan permits
employees who lose their jobs and who qualify for COBRA to receive a federal
government subsidy of 65 percent of the premiums for the coverage, so long as
the employee pays the remaining 35 percent. So, in Pennsylvania, any employee
of a small business who is terminated after July 10, 2009, and before Jan. 1,
2010, will be eligible for the subsidy. Because of the high cost of individual
and continuation health care coverage, this financial assistance is critical
to helping these individuals to afford to continue their former employer-based
coverage under Mini COBRA.

SB 89 - this bill, also supported in the Governor's Rx for PA, reauthorizes
the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council, or PHC4, which is
broadly acknowledged as the nation's premier agency of its kind. The work of
PHC4 is critical to improving patient safety and health care quality outcomes,
as well as health care cost containment, for Pennsylvanians. Health care
purchasers, such as businesses and labor unions, use PHC4 data for plan design
and cost and quality improvements. The agency had sunset last year without
legislative reauthorization and was kept in operation through an executive
order by Governor Rendell.

A study in the August 2008 American Journal of Medical Quality estimated that
PHC4's public reporting process prevented 1,500 deaths in one year in just six
disease and treatment categories. PHC4's own findings show improvements in
hospital care over the past 12 years of public reporting have saved an
estimated 49,000 lives and $1.7 billion in hospital charges. Since PHC4's
public reporting of heart surgeries began, the mortality rate for heart bypass
surgery in Pennsylvania has dropped 51.7 percent.

PHC4's first-in-the-U.S. public report quantified the cost and associated
deaths from hospital-acquired infections, and resulted in Act 52 of 2007 which
addressed infection prevention and reduction. After the first year of
implementation of Act 52, the infection rate in PA hospitals dropped 7.8
percent resulting in an estimated savings of $372 million.

SB 89 was sponsored by Sen. Patricia H. Vance (R) and a similar bill, HB 173,
was sponsored in the House by Majority Leader Rep. Todd A. Eachus (D).

More information on the new Mini COBRA bill can be found at
http://www.ins.state.pa.us/ins/cwp/view.asp?a=1274&Q=550035&PM=1 and
information on insurance for adult dependent children is at
http://www.ins.state.pa.us/ins/lib/ins/consumer/brochures/SB_189_061009.pdf.

The Rendell administration is committed to creating a first-rate public
education system, protecting our most vulnerable citizens and continuing
economic investment to support our communities and businesses.To find out more
about Governor Rendell's initiatives and to sign up for his newsletter, visit:
www.governor.state.pa.us.

CONTACT:
Chuck Ardo
717-783-1116

SOURCE Pennsylvania Office of the Governor

Chuck Ardo of the Pennsylvania Office of the Governor, +1-717-783-1116