Posted inOpinion

Could Dana-Farber deal reduce health care spending?

EVERYONE IS TALKING about the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute’s decision to abandon its long-term affiliation with Brigham and Women’s Hospital and partner instead with Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, which is offering the institute the opportunity to build a much larger free-standing cancer care hospital on the Beth Israel campus. It’s a really big deal, raising […]

Posted inHealth Care

A game plan for turning Tufts Medicine around

Second of two parts. Read the first part here. IF TUFTS MEDICINE is going to turn around financially, clearly there are short-term issues for management focus, but there are also intermediate and long-term ones as well, some of which may require state intervention. For me, there is no question that Tufts Medicine’s survival and vibrancy […]

Posted inOpinion

Abrupt Compass shutdown exposes regulatory flaws

THE ABRUPT hutdown of Compass Medical on May 31 exposed a serious flaw in the state’s health care regulatory system. Compass is an 80-clinician, multi-site practice that provides primary care services to roughly 70,000 patients. Compass officials called employees to an 8 a.m. meeting and told them the company was closing its doors immediately, all […]

Posted inOpinion

My agenda for health cost benchmark hearings

IT’S MARCH, so that means it is time for the men’s and women’s NCAA basketball tournament and all of the suspense, surprise, and excitement connected to it. But March also brings us the 7th annual Massachusetts Health Policy Commission health care cost growth benchmark hearing—scheduled this year for March 15.  Though prior hearings have lacked any “buzzer […]