WITH THE NEW YEAR, a new governor, and a new Legislature getting back to business, there are a lot of policy issues before them. I’d like to highlight legislation dealing with payments in lieu of taxation by organizations exempt from the property tax. The bill has been filed by Sen. Adam Gomez of Springfield and Rep. Erika […]
Paul Hattis
Posted inOpinion
A health care wish list narrowed to one
ABOUT A YEAR AGO, I wrote about seven state governmental policy wishes for 2022 to help rein-in overall health care spendingand to work towards a more affordable health care system in our state. My hit rate for my wishes was 2.5 out of 7, or nearly 36 percent. But with so many health care challenges —nationally and in our […]
Posted inOpinion
Hospital pediatric beds in short supply
After a long hiatus, Dr. Jarone Lee, an emergency and ICU physician at Massachusetts General Hospital and associate professor at Harvard Medical School, resumes his conversation about frontline critical care with Dr. Paul Hattis, a fellow at the Lown Institute who participates in CommonWealth’s Health or Consequences Codcast. PAUL HATTIS: It has been awhile since we […]
Posted inOpinion
Health care homework for Gov.-elect Healey
AS THE GUBERNATORIAL transition begins, Gov.-elect Maura Healey and her team will need to start setting priorities, and health care should be one of them. As the Health Policy Commission’s recent cost trends hearing revealed, some key health policy challenges are looming tied to access, cost, quality, and equity. Here are my takeaways from the […]
Posted inOpinion
Give the Health Policy Commission greater leverage
“UNLESS THE Commonwealth’s health care cost containment approach is strengthened and expanded by policymakers, the result will be a health care system that is increasingly unaffordable for Massachusetts residents and businesses with growing health inequities.” There is a lot of truth and wisdom in that statement from the Health Policy Commission’s 2022 cost trends report, […]
Posted inHealth Care, Opinion
Is state aid really helping the neediest hospitals?
AS LEGISLATORS ponder whether to resurrect a $350 million “relief” fund for Massachusetts hospitals, we suggest that they first step up the state’s informational capacity to better assure that they are allocating funding to institutions truly in financial need. We worry that the proposed allocations in the 2022 relief package, as well as unanticipated and […]
Posted inOpinion
5 observations at the end of the HPC’s Altman years
THE ”ALTMAN YEARS” came to an end at the last meeting of the Health Policy Commission when chairman Stuart Altman, a professor at Brandeis, stepped down after 10 years at the helm. The meeting raised five interesting issues for me. Sad to see Stu go: Altman’s departure wasn’t a surprise given his 10 years on […]
Posted inOpinion
Here’s a cake recipe for the Health Policy Commission
WHEN MASS GENERAL Brigham submitted its performance improvement plan on May 16, I thought what was proposed was “wholly inadequate.” In recent days, to follow up that comment, I tried to write a commentary explaining my position. My first draft read a bit wonkish, using references to CHIA and Total Medical Expense and Alternative Payment Mechanisms. […]
Posted inOpinion
Children’s acquisition of Franciscan makes sense
I WRITE TODAY not to bury the leaders of Boston Children’s Hospital, but to praise them. Well, perhaps with some reservations. My reason for saying something nice today about Boston Children’s Health System (hereafter Children’s) stems from a determination of need posting from this past week in which the parent company of Children’s has proposed […]
Posted inOpinion
DPH gets it right on Mass General Brigham
THE LONG-RUNNING power struggle between Mass General Brigham, the state’s largest health and hospital system, and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts took a decisive turn this past week. Department of Public Health regulators unveiled their recommendations regarding Mass General Brigham’s expansion proposal that involves five sites and facilities across Greater Boston. The hospital system filed three […]