Panel tables IHC bill after a testy debate

By Angie Welling
Deseret Morning News (http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,635183579,00.html)
Saturday, February 11, 2006

After an overly contentious legislative session last year, Utah's largest health-care network has largely been off the hook this time around.

But Intermountain Healthcare made a brief return to the hot seat Friday during debate on a bill that would require its hospitals to provide care to uninsured patients at the same rate it charges its own insured, as well as to disclose those rates to the state Department of Insurance.

The bill was quickly tabled, however, following a tense discussion that switched between overly polite and obviously angry, proving that emotions continue to run high on issues surrounding the nonprofit health-care giant.

Rep. David Ure, R-Kamas, initially said HB279 "is not intended to single out any specific entity." But under further questioning by Rep. Stephen Clark, R-Provo, Ure acknowledged that Intermountain Healthcare is the only Utah company that fits the requirements of his proposed legislation.

"Would you say that this bill directly is targeted at IHC?" Clark asked.

Responded Ure: "I would guess I'd have to agree with you, Rep. Clark."

Later in the discussion, Ure said he was driven to run HB279 because of a recent upgrade of the company's bond rating.

"They are a very, very strong financial institution, and I'm saying that now is the time to bring some relief to the uninsured in the state of Utah," he said.

Intermountain Healthcare was the target of a bill last session that would have taxed the company's gross receipts and, later, a move to force it to divest itself of its health insurance businesses. From those fights came the formation of the Privately Owned Health Care Organization Task Force, which is charged with studying the practices of all the players in Utah's health care system, including the market dominance of Intermountain Healthcare.

Several members of the House Business and Labor Committee — who also serve on the health care task force — accused Ure of trying to circumvent that group's work with HB279.

"On the task force we have many of the same questions that you do," said Rep. James Dunnigan, R-Taylorsville. "We are midway through, and it's my belief that we need to let the task force continue its job and see what we can come up with."

The task force has hired an outside consultant at the cost of $300,000 to study various issues relating to the state's health care system — but not, Ure said, specifically the plight of the uninsured in Utah.

"The topic of this bill is not being discussed," he said.
Rep. David Clark, R-Santa Clara, task force chairman and a member of the committee deciding HB279's fate Friday, disagreed.

"I just want the folks to know that the health care task force has done this," Clark said. "Those are issues that are before this committee, we are studying them, we are attempting to find solutions."

Steve DeVore, Orem

During public comment on the bill, Dunnigan excused a citizen who questioned the impartiality of committee members in relation to Intermountain Healthcare. Steve DeVore noted that of the three most outspoken opponents of HB279 — Stephen Clark, David Clark and James Dunnigan —each had a personal connection to Intermountain Healthcare.

"You three gentlemen should be ashamed of yourselves," DeVore said.

Dunnigan, an individual insurance broker who works with Intermountain and serves on its health plans board, invited DeVore to leave.

"We invite you to have your testimony regarding the bill, not to impugn the character" of lawmakers, he said. "You are excused from the table."

David Clark confirmed that his wife is an employee of IHC. Stephen Clark did not respond to DeVore's allegation that the lawmaker serves on an IHC board.