Prompted by an amendment on the floor by Rep. Mary Morrissey, R-Bennington, a line was added to the bill requiring the chief of health care reform to turn in a series of reports detailing the finances of the health exchange by March 11.
Last week, state officials announced that Vermont Health Connect will come in about $9.7 million over budget in FY2015. The budget adjustment bill included an allocation of $3.5 million from the General Fund for the exchange; the rest will come from global commitments and federal funding.
Under the last-minute amendment, health care reform chief Lawrence Miller must produce materials on expenditures on the exchange to date, cost projections for the next few years, and the remaining balance of any federal grants that were awarded to fund Vermont Health Connect.
The report will be given to lawmakers on the six committees represented in the Health Care Oversight Committee, a group charged with looking after the exchange outside the legislative session.
If lawmakers don’t find the materials satisfactory, they could dock funds for Vermont Health Connect in the FY2016 budget.
Morrissey originally proposed that the $9.7 million budget adjustment not be awarded until the Miller delivered the reports to the oversight committee. Her amendment was substituted for a similar one, sponsored by Rep. Mitzi Johnson, D-South Hero, and approved by the Appropriations and Health Care Committees during a short recess.
Morrissey supported Johnson’s change, and was appreciative of House support.
“My amendment was to have more oversight, more transparency, with checks and balances,” she told her fellow lawmakers.
After the 135-0 vote, Johnson, who chairs the House Appropriations Committee, said much of the material Morrissey requested is already on the books, but not every committee sees the numbers.
“There is some frustration of how free and available the information is,” Johnson said, adding, “Nobody is holding anything back. All of this is available.”
Johnson learned about Morrissey’s amendment about five minutes before the House convened. She had concerns about the language requiring that the materials be submitted to the oversight committee, so she pulled together the alternate draft.
“I tried to keep the core of what they were asking for, but with a much more workable format,” Johnson said.
Miller is due to come before House Appropriations in mid-March.
Aside from the last-minute amendment, legislators largely followed along with the governor’s proposed budget adjustments.
H.82 reduces spending from the General Fund by a total of $12 million, with $10 million going toward balancing the 2015 budget and the remaining going toward balancing next year’s budget.
The judiciary branch takes a $224,000 hit under the proposed budget, which has drawn concerns about timely judicial proceedings. In order to meet budget restrictions, the branch has delayed hiring judges to fill three vacancies.
Shumlin’s original proposal asked the judiciary to find ways to cut $500,000 for FY2016 by the end of March. Instead, House Appropriations sent a letter asking for the cuts to be made across the entire system, in hopes that the impact on court proceedings can be mitigated.
The budget adjustment bill is slated for a final vote Friday. If it passes, it will head to the Senate.
