Testimony of Timothy M. Teynor
Before the Ohio House of Representatives
Select Committee on Quality Healthcare
Tuesday, September 24, 2002

Good morning. My name is Tim Teynor. I am the Vice President of Public Policy for the Aultman Health Foundation, located in Canton, Ohio. Aultman Health Foundation is an integrated health care system offering health services to people in Stark, Tuscarawas, Carroll, Holmes and Wayne counties. Aultman Health Foundation includes Aultman Hospital, a non-profit independent tertiary hospital, and aultcare, our area's leading health plan offering health benefit coverage to over 2,100 companies.

We appeciate the opportunity to appear before the select committee on quality health care on behalf of the ohio chamber health care initiative. The issues considered by the committee frame the crucial questions that must be addressed to improve ohio's health care system. We are fortunate to be in the position to offer quality health care services to our patients and health coverage to employers and their employees. We benefit from understanding the perspective of employers that offer health coverage to their associates: the need to assure availability of high quality health benefits to their associates, paying for most of the bill, and trying to remain competitive in the markets they serve. This is a challenge that grows tougher each year, a challenge facing both private and public employers.

We believe it is crucial for employer sponsored health care to continue in the future. Employer participation in health care helps improve service delivery and provides an incentive to contain costs, boost quality and add value for employees and dependents. A significant reduction in employer sponsored health care would cause the public sector to assume a much greater role in financing health care and lead to increased regulation and the loss of innovation necessary to improve health care in the future.

Employers more than ever need to be free to offer flexible health benefit systems. We must be careful to avoid increasing the cost burden on employers and employees due to new coverage mandates and increased liability.

From a providers point of view, the legislature could help restrain rising medical costs by passing several pending tort reform bills, including:

• Senate bill 120 - would make liability proportional to a defendant's degree or fault or responsibility.
• Senate bill 179 - would modernize ohio's peer review statute.
• Senate bill 281 - would cap non-economic damages for pain and suffering in malpractice lawsuits.

In addition, a range of efforts must continue to reduce the number of ohioians lacking health insurance. Improved availability and affordability of private health insurance will help offset the burden now shared by public and private subsidies.

Finally, the legislature should avoid laws or regulations that would regionalize health care services in ohio, meaning appoaches that result in some acute care services being restricted to high cost urban areas. Many independent community hospitals now provide comprehensive health services and these communities have access to high quality physicians. If services such obstectrics and gynecology or emergency and trauma services were to be regionalized, these communities would suffer the loss of high quality and affordable health care.

Mr. Chairman, thank you for the opportunity to appear before the committee and Iwould be happy to answer any questions.