Health care database bill advanced

Lawmakers gave first-round approval Jan. 23 to a bill intended to promote transparency in the cost and quality of health care services in Nebraska.

LB76, introduced by Omaha Sen. Jeremy Nordquist, would establish a Health Care Data Base Advisory Committee tasked with making a series of recommendations to improve transparency in the state’s health care system.

Nordquist said the goal is to provide information on how health care dollars are being spent in Nebraska. Knowing how much health care services cost in different areas of the state and within different health care plans will benefit all stakeholders in the system, he said.

“This is the type of information that is needed at the consumer level [and] at the policymaking level,” Nordquist said.

Grand Island Sen. Mike Gloor agreed, saying a database could help Nebraskans better understand the complicated process of purchasing health care services.

“We don’t have data, as consumers, to allow us to make intelligent decisions,” he said.

Committee members would be appointed by the state Department of Insurance director and would include a member of academia with experience in health care and cost efficiency research. Other members would include representatives of hospitals, physicians, consumer advocates, the insurance industry and local public health departments.

The committee would be tasked with making recommendations regarding creation and implementation of the Nebraska Health Care Data Base. The database would be used to:
• provide information to consumers and purchasers of health care;
• determine the capacity and distribution of existing health care resources;
• identify health care needs and inform health care policy;
• evaluate the effectiveness of intervention programs on improving patient outcomes;
• review costs among various treatment settings, providers and approaches; and
• improve the quality and affordability of patient health care and health care coverage.

A Nordquist amendment, adopted 28-0, delayed until Dec. 15, 2014, the deadline for the department director to report the advisory committee’s recommendations to the governor and the Legislature.

Lawmakers advanced LB76 to select file on a 28-0 vote.