Third in a series about mayors across Massachusetts and how they’re contending with the COVID-19 pandemic. Here are stories on Holyoke Mayor Alex Morse and Pittsfield Mayor Linda Tyer. FOR SOMERVILLE MAYOR Joe Curtatone, a key part of governing has been data collection. Before the coronavirus pandemic, his administration regularly touted its analytic efforts on many […]
Partners HealthCare
Posted inHealth Care
What consumers deserve from Harvard Pilgrim-Tufts merger
WHEN I SPEAK with colleagues around the country about how expensive health care is in Eastern Massachusetts, I tend to place most of the blame on our large and prestigious health care provider systems that demand very high prices. More recently, I have also noted that pharma prices, fueled by patent protection for newer drugs and […]
Posted inHealth Care
Medicare for All big hit with pols — but not Mass. hospitals
MEDICARE FOR ALL, which has gained traction among Democrats in Congress and some of the party’s presidential contenders, is often described as a way to guarantee health coverage to all Americans through a single government program that takes private insurance companies, dismissed by proponents as wasteful “middlemen,” out of the picture. Insurance companies would surely […]
Posted inHealth Care
H-P chief: Medicare for all debate is good
THE CHIEF EXECUTIVE of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care doesn’t want the government to take over the entire health insurance business – at least until after he retires – but he sees some advantages to the movement seeking an expansion of Medicare so that government-backed insurance covers everyone. For one, Harvard Pilgrim CEO Michael Carson thinks […]
Posted inThe Download
H-P chief: Medicare for all debate is good
The chief executive of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care doesn’t want the government to take over the entire health insurance business – at least until after he retires – but he sees some advantages to the movement seeking an expansion of Medicare so that government-backed insurance covers everyone. For one, Harvard Pilgrim CEO Michael Carson thinks […]
Posted inOpinion
Do no harm on health care spending
WHEN THE LEGISLATURE reconvenes and takes up the unresolved challenge of shoring up the bottom lines of financially stressed community hospitals, lawmakers would do well to keep in mind the bedrock ethical principle taught to every student at the four outstanding medical schools in Massachusetts. First, do no harm. In the endlessly complex business of […]
Posted inHealth Care
Time for Baker to step up on health care
FOR THE BETTER part of this decade, Massachusetts had been on a roll regarding its health system’s performance. Since passage of the 2006 universal health insurance law, we’ve been tops in having the lowest number of uninsured the nation. Recent national surveys on cost, quality, access, and public health from the Commonwealth Fund, the United […]
Posted inThe Download
The Codcast: A devilish health care merger
Two of the state’s leading health care analysts say they aren’t sure whether creating a powerful alternative to Partners HealthCare will reduce health care costs in Massachusetts or increase them. “It’s the devil you know versus the devil you don’t know,” said John E. McDonough, a professor of public health practice at the TH Chan […]
Posted inHealth Care
BI-Lahey merger gets a break on cost growth
STATE HEALTH OFFICIALS stripped language from a document that would have required the merger of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Lahey Health to prove they’ll meet legislatively mandated cost growth benchmarks, a requirement officials made sure was adopted as part of the recent merger between Partners HealthCare and Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary. The […]
Posted inHealth Care
The Codcast: Health care duopoly in the making?
A group of hospitals led by Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Lahey Health of Burlington are banding together to take on Partners HealthCare, the dominant health care provider in the state. But as the proposed merger starts to enter the regulatory review process, some health care advocates are beginning to question whether the BI-Lahey […]