Sister Patricia Codey: Changing How Tiered Health Plans Are Created in NJ

Sister Patricia Codey, SC, Esq., president of the Catholic HealthCare Partnership of New Jersey, discusses legislation in New Jersey that could change the way tiered health plans are created.

Transcript (slightly modified)

A Senate committee will discuss legislation that would change the way tiered health plans are created in New Jersey. What are the key parts of this legislation?

On Monday there’s going to be a hearing in the senate commerce committee in regards to a package of bills dealing with OMNIA. And I really applaud the leadership of Senator (Joseph) Vitale and Senator (Nia) Gill. … They certainly have taken up the challenge; they certainly have been working with various stakeholders to try to come up with some legislation that provides the following:

One would be transparency. Transparency is very, very important in the industry.

The second item is, what are the standards that would be used to evaluate how someone comes to be in a tiered network, and then what weight do we give those standards?

And is there an opportunity for all stakeholders to come to the table and make their cases?

I would applaud the efforts that are being made on the legislative front, certainly it’s a bipartisan effort, but we really need evaluate what happened and how we can move forward. And I believe this legislation will provide that.