Section 5. (a) There is hereby established the advisory committee on health care and tobacco control which shall recommend to the governor and the general court the most effective and prudent uses of the funds available in said trust for financing the present and future health related and tobacco control needs of the commonwealth.
(b) Said committee shall consist of 29 members, one of whom shall be the secretary of administration and finance, or his designee, who shall be a nonvoting member, one of whom shall be the secretary of health and human services, or his designee, who shall be a nonvoting member, and 13 of whom shall be appointed by the governor, one of whom shall be a representative of the Massachusetts Municipal Association, one of whom shall be a representative of the Massachusetts Association of Health Maintenance Organizations, one of whom shall be a member of the American Cancer Society, one of whom shall be a member of the Massachusetts Medical Society, one of whom shall be a private citizen who shall be a member of a chamber of commerce located within the commonwealth, one of whom shall be a member of the Massachusetts Senior Action Council, one of whom shall be a member of the Massachusetts Public Health Association, one of whom shall be a member of the Massachusetts Hospital Association, one of whom shall be a member of the Massachusetts Extended Care Federation, one of whom shall be a private citizen who shall be a health care economist, one of whom shall be a children’s advocate, one of whom shall be a member from an organization concerned with health care needs specific to the minority community and one of whom shall be a member of the Massachusetts Dental Society, and 14 members appointed by the attorney general, one of whom shall be a member of the tobacco control resource center, one of whom shall be a member of the American Lung Association, one of whom shall be a member of the Massachusetts Association of Health Boards, one of whom shall be a member of the Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers, one of whom shall be a member of Health Care for All, one of whom shall be a private citizen who is a survivor of a tobacco-related illness or has a family member that has suffered from a tobacco-related illness, one of whom shall be a member of the American Association of Retired Persons, one of whom shall be a private citizen with expertise in health care finance, one of whom shall be a dean from a school of public health located within the commonwealth, one of whom shall be a member of the Massachusetts Nurses’ Association; one of whom shall be a member of the Massachusetts chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics; one of whom shall be a member of the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America, New England chapter; one of whom shall be a member of the American Heart Association; and one of whom shall be a representative of a public or private institution with expertise in tobacco cessation and control. In the event that an organization, association or other entity or successor organization, association or other entity named herein ceases to exist, the governor and the attorney general shall agree on a comparable replacement appointee. All appointments shall be for terms of three years except that the initial appointment of six members, including three members appointed by the governor and three members appointed by the attorney general, shall be for terms of two years and the initial appointments of six members, including three members appointed by the governor and three members appointed by the attorney general, shall be for terms of one year.
(c) Said commission shall adopt by-laws governing its proceedings and the procedures for developing its spending plan recommendations. Any such recommendations submitted to the governor and the general court shall be adopted by a two-thirds vote. The secretaries of administration and finance and health and human services shall assign employees of the line agencies under their jurisdiction to assist said commission with its duties. Said commission may request additional staff, consultants or other expenditures in fulfillment of its duties, including third party consultants, actuaries or health care specialists, which shall be made available subject to appropriation.
(d) Said commission shall meet not less than quarterly between the months of January and September, inclusive. Upon receiving in October the comptroller’s certification of the amount available for appropriation in the following fiscal year, the commission may meet as often as necessary to develop and submit its spending recommendations not later than the second Wednesday in December. Said spending recommendation shall be filed with the office of the governor, the fiscal affairs division, the house and senate committees on ways and means, the joint committee on health care and with the clerk of the house of representatives and the clerk of the senate.
(e) Said commission shall not make spending recommendations for the subsequent fiscal year in excess of the amount available for expenditure pursuant to subsections (c) and (e) of section 3. Said recommendations shall include a projection of any future costs, annualization and savings resulting from said spending recommendations. Said recommendations shall not be predicated upon unexpended amounts from the current fiscal year being automatically made available for re-appropriation for the same purpose in the subsequent fiscal year, but nothing contained herein shall preclude the commission from making a recommendation to re-appropriate said unexpended amounts for the same or any other purpose authorized by this chapter.
(f) Said commission shall give priority to the funding of annualization for programs and services obligated in prior fiscal years before recommending funding for the expansion of services or the provision of new services. No programs or services recommended by said commission shall establish any entitlement to benefits or services without identifying funding sources sufficient to meet the costs of such entitlements in future years. Said spending recommendations shall be based, to the extent feasible and appropriate, upon an evaluation of scientific data and research that establishes the basis for a cost-benefit analysis of funding needs and identifies the extent to which said recommendation meet the universe of unmet or underserved health-related needs.
(g) Said commission shall monitor the performance and effectiveness of all programs funded by earnings of the trust and shall undertake a sunset review, so-called, of any such program or service not achieving performance expectations. Said commission shall monitor the extent to which funding from the trust complements or expands upon previously implemented health related programs and services and whether such funding has been used to supplant or replace previously obligated health related and tobacco control appropriations.
(h) Beginning on the first Wednesday of October, 2003, and every 3 years thereafter, said commission shall conduct a review to evaluate: (1) the present and future health needs of the citizens of the commonwealth; (2) the financial stability of the trust in light of the return on investment and any adjustment factors or other factors affecting the future stream of payments from the tobacco settlement, based upon recommendations by the board of trustees of said trust; (3) whether, and to what extent, the present health needs of the commonwealth, when balanced against future needs, warrant recommending a change in the allocation of monies between the trust and the General Fund; and (4) the merits of all existing programs funded by transfers from the Health Care Security Trust. After such review, the commission shall prepare a report with its recommendations and shall file said report with the office of the governor, the fiscal affairs division, the house and senate committees on ways and means, the joint committee on health care and with the clerk of the house of representatives and the clerk of the senate.
Section: Previous 1 2 3 4 5Last modified: September 11, 2015