Hospitals launch drive to demystify insurance law
In Mass., nearly all must get health coverage by July 1
Massachusetts hospitals and community health centers are launching a drive to educate business owners and employees, particularly at smaller firms, about the significant responsibilities and costs they will face under the state's mandatory health insurance expansion.
Their tools of choice? Community breakfasts, brochures and posters in 14 languages, and first-aid kits emblazoned with the slogan "Massachusetts Health Reform: More Than Just a Band-Aid."
In banquet rooms and meeting halls across the state, hospital officials are sitting down with business owners over coffee and muffins to learn the basics.
The state passed a law in 2006 that takes effect this year requiring that Massachusetts residents have health insurance, an effort to extend coverage to an estimated 536,000 uninsured people.
Parts of the education efforts by hospitals are being undertaken with a $400,000 grant to the Massachusetts Hospital Association from the Legislature.
"We want to help them understand their obligations, why it was passed, and demystify the alphabet soup. There's a lot of fine print," said Normand Deschene , chief executive of Lowell General Hospital , which hosted a breakfast this month and is one of dozens of hospitals holding open houses in a coordinated effort on Wednesday.
Business owners are confused by the modifications that have been made to the law since its passage last year, he said. While there was some skepticism in the crowd about the state's ability to run a health insurance program, he said most comments were supportive.
"The shared responsibility thing to solve the problems of the uninsured has caught fire," Deschene said. "A lot of people feel that if they don't solve it, it's only going to get worse."
The work by hospitals is running parallel to efforts to sign up individuals for health coverage statewide. There is even a group called Arts Health Care Coalition that is focusing on self-employed artists.
The state's authority in charge of running the program -- the Commonwealth Health Insurance Connector Authority -- has exempted about 60,000 people from the insurance requirement because no insurance plans could be made affordable enough for them. Under the law, all adults must have insurance by July 1.
A penalty, initially $200, will be imposed on those who do not have insurance by Dec. 31.
According to the authority's educational website, gethealthcoverage.net, businesses with more than 10 workers must pay 33 percent of insurance premium costs for their employees, or make sure 25 percent of their workers are participating in an employee-sponsored plan.
If they don't do either of those things, they will be required to pay the state up to $295 per employee per year.
"There will probably be quite a few surprised businesses," said Peter Kortright , president of the Fall River Area Chamber of Commerce , which helped organize a breakfast meeting in Westport Thursday that was attended by 80 to 100 business operators. "There are a wide variety of companies that will find they are not doing enough, and are going to have to make changes."
The Westport meeting was co-hosted by executives from Southcoast Health System , which runs hospitals in New Bedford, Fall River, and Wareham. The executives are focusing on business operators with more than 10 employees, said Kortright, because once the mandates kick in, employees are going to be asking their employers for guidance. "It is a very complex topic," he said.
Kortright has another educational problem of his own. "I have to figure out how to get my 28-year-old son to understand that he cannot go on living without health coverage," he said.
Christopher Rowland can be reached at crowland@globe.com. 
