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Mike Tipping is serving his second term in the Maine Senate, representing 28 communities in central and northern Penobscot County. Michelle Boyer is serving her first term in the Maine House representing Cape Elizabeth.
Across Maine, we’ve seen the closure of important hospital services like birth and delivery. Across the country, we’ve seen hospitals bought out by private equity firms and closed down, leaving communities reeling.
It was threats like these that led to the convening of a legislative commission last fall to explore these issues, find answers and make recommendations the state can act on.
We had the honor of co-chairing that commission, which brought together a wide range of stakeholders, including representatives of hospitals and other health care facilities, patient-advocacy groups and health care practitioners. Now, some of those recommendations are being considered by the Legislature and are hopefully on their way to becoming law.
LD 2189 requires hospitals to give at least three months of notice before closing labor and delivery units or making changes in maternity or newborn care services. The hope is not only that patients will be able to better plan their care with this notice, but that community and state leaders will have more time to react and prevent such closures.
LD 2200 prohibits noncompete clauses for doctors and other health care professionals. These provisions in employment contracts can interfere with a health care provider’s ability to practice in their area of choice and limit Mainers’ options for care.
A noncompete clause might, for instance, prohibit a doctor from working within a specific distance — for example, 30 miles — from the location of their previous employer. This bill aims to ease Maine’s shortage of health care professionals, especially in rural areas, and make sure providers in Maine have more freedom to practice where they are needed.
LD 2201 provides new transparency and safeguards when private equity companies, hedge funds and other financial entities attempt to buy Maine health care facilities.
Examples across the country, including in other New England states, have shown the harm private equity takeovers can cause when hospitals are bought up, stripped for parts and shut down. This legislation aims to allow state regulators in Maine to view transactions involving private equity through a more comprehensive lens and prohibit some of the practices that are most harmful to the public good.
Finally, LD 2202 requires health care entities to provide notice about certain mergers to Maine’s attorney general in addition to the federal government. Right now, the state is sometimes left in the dark about transactions that could affect access to health care for thousands of Mainers. This bill will give the AG’s office a tool they need to better monitor these mergers and make sure they’re not in violation of any laws or harming health care access in Maine.
All four of these bills have now advanced out of the Health Coverage, Insurance and Financial Services Committee and are before the Maine House and Maine Senate for votes.
These measures alone won’t fix the significant problems Mainers face in accessing health care — from high and increasing costs, to a lack of local providers — but they could help to improve Maine’s health care system and make it more resilient in the face of new threats.
We’re hopeful that the work completed by the commission this fall and continued in the Legislature this year will lead to meaningful changes in how health care entities operate and improve access to care for Maine people.
Fixing health care can seem like a complex and intractable problem, but this work has shown that when people come together, we can find practical solutions that move us in the right direction and make a real impact in people’s lives. We remain dedicated to continuing to protect and improve access to health care for all Mainers.
