Tempers flare at IHC talks

Tensions continue to rise in the legislative examination of Intermountain Health Care, with a Thursday task force meeting marked with interruptions, raised voices and obvious frustration.

The fifth meeting of the Privately Owned Health Care Organization Task Force picked up a panel discussion started last month meant to explore IHC's dominance in the state's health care market and how other providers interact with the state's largest hospital network. Panelists include representatives from health care providers that operate in Utah, including IHC.

It soon became clear, however, that the edges were beginning to fray on the delicately patched accord between panelists and lawmakers. The tense back-and-forth continued for an hour and a half before Rep. Patricia Jones, D-Salt Lake, moved to end the discussion and move onto the next item on the agenda — hiring an outside expert to evaluate the state of Utah's health care market.

"We could go on all day about these issues," said Jones, noting she hoped her comments were more "genteel" than others already made. Given the extreme feelings on all sides, she said, it was necessary to bring an unbiased, third party into the mix.

At the outset of the meeting, Altius Health Plans CEO Mike Bahr indicated that the "non-IHC group" had met earlier and agreed upon what direction the task force should heading.

"I think the issue that the group, the non-IHC group, would like looked at is, 'Does the size of IHC create a disproportionate or dysfunctional market? . . . Are there benefits to the Utah consumer by changing that or constraining it somehow?' " Bahr said.

Senate chairman Michael Waddoups, R-Taylorsville, thanked Bahr for the suggestion, but briskly reminded him that "this is a legislative task force." Additionally, he said, it is not "an anti-IHC task force."

Earlier this year, Waddoups proposed a bill that would have imposed a 3 percent tax on IHC, a nonprofit, tax-exempt corporation gifted to the state by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1975. The proposal sparked great controversy, which was quelled to some degree by the creation of the task force to conduct in-depth studies of IHC, and other privately held health care organizations, over the next two years.

The 15-member committee has struggled with the enormity of its role, and non-IHC affiliated panel members have expressed concern about speaking out against IHC, with which they both compete and collaborate.

Rep. Rebecca Lockhart, R-Provo, called on IHC senior Vice President Greg Poulsen to explain how the company reconciles its mission as a nonprofit organization with the fact that it dominates the marketplace like a very successful profitable corporation.