CERBERUS CAPITAL MANAGEMENT started recouping its investment in Steward Health Care on Monday as the Massachusetts-based hospital system announced it was raising $1.25 billion through a deal with an Alabama […]
Health Care
Posted inHealth Care
Hospital pricing deliberations begin
THE 22 MEMBERS OF THE SPECIAL COMMISSION set up to address unwarranted price variation among the state’s health care providers held their first meeting on Tuesday, with one of the […]
Posted inHealth Care, State House News Service
Mass. health care spending up 3.9%
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE Spending on health care in Massachusetts rose to $57.2 billion in 2015, growing more slowly than in 2014 but for the second straight year outpacing the […]
Posted inHealth Care
Baker pushes health care competition
THE BAKER ADMINISTRATION is showing signs that it wants to get more aggressive about encouraging greater competition between health care providers. Monica Bharel, the commissioner of the Department of Public […]
Posted inHealth Care, Opinion
Children’s Hospital expansion won’t cut costs
IN 2008, A SEMINAL ARTICLE was published in Health Affairs by Donald M. Berwick, Thomas W. Noland, and John Whittington, entitled “The Triple Aim: Care, Health, And Cost.” Its conclusions […]
Posted inHealth Care, Politics, State House News Service
Deal would avoid hospital pricing ballot fight
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE A DEAL BROKERED by Beacon Hill leaders between labor and the hospital industry to avert a contentious hospital pricing disparity ballot question this fall would reenergize […]
Posted inHealth Care
Commission wraps up health pricing discussions
THE STATE’S HEALTH POLICY COMMISSION on Thursday wrapped up a series of discussions with industry stakeholders on what to do about hospital pricing disparities, but the group seemed to have […]
Posted inHealth Care, Politics
Groups raise concern on hospital pricing talks
THE HEADS OF NINE BUSINESS AND INSURANCE GROUPS sent a letter to top Beacon Hill leaders on Tuesday raising concerns about some of the proposals being considered to forestall a […]
Posted inHealth Care, The Download
Health care cost transparency no panacea
It has been an article of faith among many of those concerned about soaring health care costs, including Gov. Charlie Baker: Pull back the covers on the costs of health […]
Posted inHealth Care, State House News Service, The Download
Partners at center of health care cost conundrums
On the one hand, countless studies suggest high-priced hospitals in Massachusetts offer care in most cases that is no different from what is available at a much lower cost at […]
Posted inEconomy, Health Care, Opinion
Doing more for homeless people in Massachusetts
THE FOUNDING OF the Massachusetts Bay Colony was grounded in the social contract. In a sermon delivered in 1630, Gov. John Winthrop articulated the belief that, “[W]e must… make other’s […]
Posted inHealth Care, The Back Story
Bogus Health Connector website shut down
The Baker administration has shut down a shadowy commercial website masquerading as the official Massachusetts Health Connector and referring customers to health insurers while collecting a fee in the process. […]
Posted inHealth Care, The Download
Health care pricing regulation gains backing
Slowly but surely the case is being made for some form of state intervention in health care pricing. Attorney General Maura Healey broached the idea in October during a series […]
Posted inHealth Care, Opinion
Testing the market-knows-best hypothesis
MASSACHUSETTS, HOME OF the world’s most expensive health care system, is in the midst of a boom in the development of in-patient psychiatric hospital beds. Responding to perceived market demand, developers […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service
Healey names Berwick to Health Policy Commission
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE FORMER GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE DON BERWICK, who once held a top health post in the Obama administration, will join the state’s Health Policy Commission next year as […]
Posted inHealth Care, Opinion
Sounds of health-care silence in GOP debate
I HAD ONE mission last night watching the Republican debate among the party’s top 10 presidential contenders: What, if anything, could we learn about the state of play regarding the […]
Posted inHealth Care, Politics, State House News Service
MassHealth OKs postpartum depression screening
Beginning next spring, MassHealth, the state’s Medicaid program, will reimburse health care providers for the costs of screening women for postpartum depression. Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito made the announcement at […]
Posted inHealth Care, Opinion
CBO: Obamacare repeal would be costly
MY FAVORED DEFINITION of “health policy wonk” is someone who reads health reports from the Congressional Budget Office — and enjoys it. Guilty as charged. Last Friday’s new report, “Budgetary and […]
Posted inHealth Care, Opinion
A grand bargain on medical device tax
ONE PROPOSAL TO CHANGE the Affordable Care Act would repeal the law’s 2.3 percent tax on sales of medical devices. On June 2, the House Ways and Means Committee voted, once […]
Posted inHealth Care, Opinion, Politics
Don’t cut lifeline for pregnant women, new mothers
AS AN OBSTETRICIAN/GYNECOLOGIST, I regularly see women suffering from depression in pregnancy and during the year following delivery. The reality is that many women are not caressing their growing bellies […]