MASSACHUSETTS EXPECTS to receive a limited number of new, rapid COVID-19 tests from the federal government, which state officials will use to support school reopenings, Gov. Charlie Baker said Tuesday. The new BinaxNOW test, developed by Abbott Labs, received emergency authorization from the FDA late last month. The test is a simple nasal swab – […]
Health Care
Posted inHealth Care
COVID-19 crimes may be tough to prove
“UTTERLY BAFFLING” was how Mark Pearlstein, the attorney retained by Gov. Charlie Baker to investigate what went wrong at the Holyoke Soldiers’ Home, described the decision to combine 42 veterans with dementia – some of them infected with COVID-19 – into a single unit with a capacity to hold 25. Attorney General Maura Healey on […]
Posted inHealth Care
Critics say Holyoke Soldiers’ Home chronically underfunded
THE OUTCOME OF COVID-19 at the state-run Holyoke and Chelsea soldiers’ homes could not have been more different. The Holyoke home was the site of a massive outbreak in which 76 veterans died, and it became a national example of how not to handle a pandemic. Attorney General Maura Healey announced criminal charges Friday against the former Holyoke Soldiers’ Home superintendent […]
Posted inHealth Care
Two at Holyoke Soldiers’ Home face criminal charges
FORMER HOLYOKE Soldiers’ Home superintendent Bennett Walsh and former medical director David Clinton have been indicted on criminal charges related to the COVID-19 outbreak that killed 76 veterans at the state-run home and sickened another 84. Attorney General Maura Healey announced the charges, which relate to five specific veterans, on Friday. The charges center on […]
Posted inHealth Care
Indoor visits allowed at nursing homes
STARTING FRIDAY, nursing homes can start allowing residents to meet with visitors indoors, to eat in communal dining halls, and to use indoor gyms or exercise spaces. Nursing homes have been ground zero in the fight against COVID-19. There have been 6,011 COVID-19 deaths at the state’s long-term care facilities, nearly 66 percent of the […]
Posted inOpinion
Health insurance rate hike should be reviewed
HEALTH CARE FOR ALL is deeply concerned about the 8 percent increase in health insurance premiums approved for the coming year, and believes such a rate hike needs to be the focus of public, transparent hearings. In 2020, the use of health care services has been lower than expected due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and reports show […]
Posted inOpinion
Four issues to watch on health insurance
AT LAST WEEK’S Health Policy Commission meeting, Kevin Beagan, the deputy commissioner of the Division of Insurance, shared some interesting data highlighting the state of our private health insurance markets in Massachusetts during this COVID-19 era. When you put together some of the data he shared, along with other information that has come out about […]
Posted inHealth Care
Baker’s firing of Walsh voided for now
FORMER HOLYOKE Soldiers Home superintendent Bennett Walsh insisted Gov. Charlie Baker didn’t have the power to fire him, and it turns out he was right. Hampden County Superior Court Judge John Ferrara ruled on Monday that only the board of the Holyoke Soldiers Home can remove Walsh from his position. As a result of the […]
Posted inPolitics
Groups urge ROE Act passage to honor Ginsburg
WITH PRESIDENT TRUMP widely expected to nominate a pro-life judge to replace Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a strong abortion rights voice on the court who died Friday at the age of 87, pro-choice advocates and some Democratic legislators have decided the best way to honor Ginsburg’s memory is to push for the passage of state legislation strengthening abortion access in Massachusetts. […]
Posted inHealth Care
COVID-19 vaccine unlikely to be a silver bullet
FOR MONTHS, a quarantine-weary, virus-ridden nation has been waiting for a COVID-19 vaccine. It’s become the endgame, the antidote to all the death and economic destruction the virus has caused. Massachusetts’s final reopening stage, referred to as the “new normal,” is predicated on having an effective treatment or vaccine. But experts are beginning to rein […]