AS THE BATTLE heats up surrounding the capital project proposals put forward by Mass General Brigham to the Department of Public Health, most of the focus over the next few months will be on the effort to collect data and offer some analysis about the various impacts of the planned expansion. The scope and data […]
Paul Hattis
Posted inOpinion
Can Mass General Brigham integrate?
Perhaps its’s real this time, and not just rhetoric. I am referring, of course, to the recent media stories that Mass General Brigham, more than 25 years after its creation, is about to begin the task of crafting a unified and integrated health care delivery system—with some desire to obtain operational savings. This effort is reportedly […]
Posted inOpinion
Health cost benchmark up in the air right now
FROM A PURELY technical point of view, next week’s legislatively mandated annual cost growth benchmark hearing of the Health Policy Commission is a big waste of time. Why? Because under the 2012 law, the 3.1 percent benchmark goal for per capita growth in health care spending can only be adjusted right now to be set […]
Posted inOpinion
Breaking down hospital community benefits
2020 was a year like no other. COVID-19 laid bare many inequities in our Commonwealth and nation. Black and Latinx residents, many of whom are low-wage essential workers, immigrants, and non-English speakers were most impacted by both the virus leading to higher rates of hospitalization and death, as well as by the accompanying chronic economic […]
Posted inOpinion
Money-losing Allways is drain on Mass General Brigham
ALLWAYS HEALTH Partners, which is owned by the Massachusetts General Brigham hospital system, won approval of an 11.5 percent average increase in premium rates across its plans last week from the state Division of Insurance. The rate hike, scaled back from the original 15 percent request, represents the latest attempt by Mass General Brigham to […]
Posted inOpinion
Hospitals should partner with home health care workers
Two recent studies on the impact of COVID-19 on Massachusetts home care and home health workers and the people they care for highlight a need to build capacities for the safe delivery of care in this essential sector during the current pandemic era and beyond. The studies, by the state’s Betsy Lehman Center for Patient […]
Posted inHealth Care
Getting the vaccine was no big deal
This is another in a series of conversations between Dr. Jarone Lee, a frontline critical care and emergency physician at Massachusetts General Hospital and associate professor at Harvard Medical School, and Dr. Paul Hattis, a retired associate professor at the Tufts University Medical School who participates in CommonWealth’s Health or Consequences Codcast. Find links for past conversations […]
Posted inOpinion
COVID-19 fallout: Alarming trend of severe liver disease
This is another in a series of conversations between Dr. Jarone Lee, a frontline critical care and emergency physician at Massachusetts General Hospital and associate professor at Harvard Medical School, and Dr. Paul Hattis, a retired associate professor at the Tufts University Medical School who participates in CommonWealth’s Health or Consequences Codcast. Find links for past conversations […]
Posted inOpinion
Don’t forget home care workers
AS WE WAIT for a final plan on who should be the first to receive limited supplies of COVID-19 vaccines, there is general consensus that health care personnel who are likely exposed to or treat COVID-19 infected people should be at the front of the line. This group includes frontline workers at hospitals, long-term care […]
Posted inOpinion
With COVID surging again, Dr. Lee returns
This is the 13th conversation between Dr. Jarone Lee, a frontline critical care and emergency physician at Massachusetts General Hospital and associate professor at Harvard Medical School, and Dr. Paul Hattis, a retired associate professor at the Tufts University Medical School who participates in CommonWealth’s Health or Consequences Codcast. The first 12 conversations took place during the […]