Health insurance reform regulations issued

The Executive Office for Administration and Finance today issued its draft of emergency regulations to outline administrative procedures for two aspects of the Municipal Health Insurance Reform Act.

The office will be accepting comments on the regulations until 5 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 5.

The landmark law, which authorizes cities and towns to modify employee health plans without going through the full collective bargaining process, was signed by Gov. Deval Patrick on July 12. The law lays out a process for cities and towns to increase co-pays and deductibles and introduce tiered networks, steps that will enable communities to avoid an estimated $100 million in health insurance cost increases statewide.

The law calls for Administration and Finance to issue regulations to outline the administrative procedures for a 30-day period of negotiation between municipal management and labor over proposed plan design changes.

A&F is also issuing administrative procedures for the local “municipal health insurance review panel,” which, in cases where an agreement is not reached between management and labor, would review the plan design proposal to ensure that it meets the statewide benchmark and would evaluate plans to mitigate the impact of the changes on certain subscribers.

In late July, the MMA wrote to Administration and Finance Secretary Jay Gonzalez emphasizing that the regulations should only address administrative procedures, as instructed by the law, and should not add any conditions on communities that would slow the process or add costs.

The MMA will be filing formal written comments with A&F.