What MA State Senate bill does to prevent another Steward collapse? A 60-second read

The Massachusetts State Senate will vote Thursday on a voluminous 115-page healthcare oversight reform bill in part inspired by the crisis at Steward Health Care.

This year, the House and Senate wrote bills to try to prevent similar problems from festering under the surface. The two bills remain significantly different. They only have 16 days to create and vote on a compromise bill when lawmakers are required to suspend any major business for the remainder of the two-year term.

The Senate bill would require private equity firms associated with healthcare providers to participate in the annual cost trends process, and allow regulators to audit not just hospitals' financial documents but out-of-state parent organizations, private equity owners, and real estate investment trusts.

What else does the Senate propose to prevent another Steward collapse

The Senate bill limits the debt a private equity-owned healthcare provider can have. The Health Policy Commission and Center for Health Information and Analysis would monitor if a provider exceeds the debt-to-earnings ratio, and regulators could refer the matter to the attorney general's office.

Both bills would require lessors to notify the state before repossessing any medical equipment or supplies; plus increase penalties for failing to report financial data from $1,000 per week to $25,000.

The House voted to prohibit hospitals from leasing the property of their main campus from real estate investment trusts, while the Senate does not outright bar such sale-leaseback agreements it would require a formal material change notice before a deal and empower the state to modify those proposed transactions.