HAVING ATTENDED the Health Policy Commission’s annual cost trend hearings earlier this month, I came away thinking about five interesting moments, which I present in the chronological order in which they occurred. 1. In his third time kicking off the hearings since his election as governor, Charlie Baker stayed consistent in the directional theme of […]
Paul Hattis
Posted inHealth Care, Opinion
Beth Israel-Lahey merger causing some jitters
USUALLY SUMMERTIME is not chock full of key health care developments and related news stories. Yes, there is always the strategic late August regulatory filings from our hospitals, where annual CEO salaries are published—with hospitals hoping that most people are away on vacation and not reading newspapers. But, clearly, this summer is different. The circus […]
Posted inHealth Care, Opinion
Moving beyond health cost targets
IN LATE MARCH, the board of the Health Policy Commission voted unanimously to leave the 2018 cost growth benchmark for total state health care expenditures at 3.1 percent. This target for per-person growth in health spending was set under our 2012 cost containment law as the predicted growth in the state’s overall economy for 2018 […]
Posted inHealth Care, Opinion
The Partners premium
IT IS INTERESTING TO WITNESS Partners HealthCare and its efforts to fend off any policy approaches that may attempt to rein-in the unwarranted high prices the company receives from commercial payers in Massachusetts. With the Special Commission to Review Variation in Prices among Providers half way through its meetings, I guess some of the initial […]
Posted inHealth Care, Opinion, Politics
Could breakup of Partners be way to go?
WITH GOV. CHARLIE BAKER now having signed off on the legislative deal to avoid the SEIU ballot initiative which would have drastically taken commercial insurance monies away from Partners HealthCare, one wonders just how invested he is in any proposed “real” policy solutions coming out of the newly created special commission to review variation in […]