The Health Policy Commission’s double-barreled attack on Mass General Brigham dominated the headlines earlier this week, but the truth is the commission — as influential as it is — is just one of many players trying to convince the state Department of Public Health to either approve or reject the hospital system’s $2.3 billion expansion plan.

Three top Mass General Brigham officials made that point exactly in letters they sent to the Department of Public Health on Thursday. They said DPH should consider the Health Policy Commission’s perspective, but not give it any greater weight than a separate analysis commissioned by the agency (and paid for by Mass General Brigham) that reached a very different conclusion. They also urged DPH to remember that its mandate is much broader than the Health Policy Commission’s.

“The HPC’s role is narrow – to contain monetary health care costs,” said David Brown, the president of Massachusetts General Hospital, which is seeking approval to expand. “The HPC does not consider the benefits of a project from the access or quality perspectives. But that is, in fact, DPH’s role, and it is critical that the DPH not lose sight of its broader purpose in determining what is needed for the good of public health.”

David McCready, the president of Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital, which is also seeking to expand, made a similar point in his own letter. “The HPC’s analysis was designed to reach its predetermined conclusion that patients should not have a choice with respect to their own health care if the costs of such care may be higher than that offered by another provider,” McCready said.

And John Fernandez, president of Mass General Brigham Integrated Care, said the reason he is pushing for approval to open new ambulatory care centers in Woburn, Westborough, and Westwood is to provide care in a lower-cost setting. He said the Health Policy Commission would prefer patients continue to travel into Boston.

“According to the HPC, if MGB patients don’t like the inconvenience, they can use local non-MGB providers,” he wrote. “The HPC would remove MGB patients’ choice and direct them to providers that they do not choose to use, which is equivalent to government directed, rationed care.”

Attorney General Maura Healey’s office, another player in this high-stakes hospital drama, sent a letter to the Department of Public Health on Thursday focusing on deficiencies in the cost analysis that concluded the Mass General Brigham expansion plan was consistent with the state’s health care cost containment goals. 

Eric Gold, the head of Healey’s health care division, said the analysis failed to take into account the power of the Mass General Brigham brand in attracting patients. Calling Mass General Brigham “among the finest health care provider systems in the world,” Gold said many who try Mass General Brigham for one form of care will eventually go all in.

“These patients will be creating a relationship with the MGB system that will (or may) likely involve long-term shifts in where they obtain primary, specialty, and hospital care,” Gold wrote. “Analysis of the project’s impact on the Commonwealth’s health care cost containment goals is not complete without considering the financial impact of the shift of commercially insured patients to the MGB system for all their care. In its 2018 planning process, MGB itself anticipated that creation of new ambulatory care centers would increase patient affiliation with the whole MGB system and would generate referrals to MGB hospitals.”

BRUCE MOHL

FROM COMMONWEALTH

Clarification sought: Opponents of the proposed millionaire tax petition the Supreme Judicial Court to change the summary of the constitutional amendment that will appear on the November ballot. The summary currently says the money raised from the income tax surcharge will go to transportation and education, but the petitioners say money is fungible on Beacon Hill and there’s no guarantee the income tax surcharge will actually increase spending in those areas. Read more.

Prison body cameras: Amid allegations of brutality by correctional officers at Souza-Baranowski prison, state officials order the guards to start wearing body cameras this summer. Read more.

Ridership plunges: MBTA ridership across all modes took a significant tumble over the last month. T officials are blaming a holiday lull and the Omicron surge, and say there are already signs of riders returning to the system. Read more.

Marijuana fixes: Bills making a number of long-awaited fixes to the state’s marijuana laws are moving on Beacon Hill. One clamps down on abusive host community agreements, provides seed funding for so-called social equity entrepreneurs, and clarifies how municipalities can host  marijuana cafes. Another bill would make it easier to expunge pre-legalization convictions for marijuana possession. Read more.

T capital transfer greenlighted: The MBTA board blessed a $500 million transfer from the operating budget to the capital budget to move forward a number of projects, including three new bus repair facilities, an anti-collision system on the Green Line, a design for a new Newton commuter rail station, and several more. One thing missing: No money for a low-income fare pilot, which the board is going to get a briefing on at its February meeting. Read more.

Voting bill showdown coming: The House passed a voting reform bill that would make permanent many of the reforms put in place during the pandemic, including vote-by-mail. There is one key difference with the Senate’s version of the bill – the House bill doesn’t include same-day voter registration. 

– During debate, efforts to include same-day voter registration were rebuffed, although an amendment was approved directing Secretary of the Commonwealth Bill Galvin to conduct a study exploring the impact of same-day voter registration on the workload of municipal voting officials. Read more.

OPINION

Kristina Mensik and Jonathan Cohn urge the House to adopt same-day voter registration in its package of election reforms. Read more. 

FROM AROUND THE WEB

MUNICIPAL MATTERS  

A Massachusetts appeals court temporarily blocks the city of Boston’s vaccine mandate for employees. (WBUR) A Newburyport Superior Court judge upholds Salem’s right to impose a vaccine mandate on people entering certain types of businesses. (Salem News)

The Globe says the showdown with municipal unions over vaccines is dominating Boston Mayor Michelle Wu’s early days in office. The Download wrote earlier this week of the dilemma Wu is facing in seeking compliance with the mandate – without having to make good on the vow to dismiss city workers who don’t comply. 

New Bedford’s deputy fire chief was fired after apparently lying about the extent of his work-related injuries, and now the city is trying to recoup money it paid to him while he was out on disability. (Standard-Times)

HEALTH/HEALTH CARE

The latest COVID-19 case numbers indicate that the surge is beginning to decline in Massachusetts. (MassLive)

ELECTIONS

New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell decides not to run for governor or attorney general. (Standard-Times) Middlesex DA Marian Ryan also says she won’t run for the AG’s post and will instead seek reelection this fall. (Boston Globe) 

A survey from MassINC Polling Group shows former Boston city councilor Andrea Campbell, who is weighing a run for AG, would start out with an early lead, pulling support from 31 percent of likely Democratic voters, while Brookline attorney Shannon Liss-Riordan, who launched her campaign earlier this week, garnered 3 percent, and likely candidate Quentin Palfrey was at 2 percent. (Politico) 

BUSINESS/ECONOMY

General Electric is outsourcing about 80 jobs at its plant in Lynn. (Daily Item)

Jesse Pitts, a man formerly incarcerated for selling marijuana, is the first social equity applicant to get three licenses from the Cannabis Control Commission, for retail sales, cultivation, and manufacturing. (USA Today)

EDUCATION

Seeking to avert a state takeover, Boston schools superintendent Brenda Cassellius sends an intervention team into three low-performing schools – Charlestown High School, Madison Park Technical Vocational High School, and the McKinley K-12 school. (GBH)

School bus delays and no-show buses are plaguing the Worcester school district. (Telegram & Gazette)

Laurie Leshin, president of Worcester Polytechnic Institute, will leave her job to become the director of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a California-based space-exploration organization affiliated with NASA. (Telegram & Gazette)

CRIMINAL JUSTICE/COURTS

The Massachusetts Trial Court reaches a $425,000 settlement with a social worker who alleged former judge Thomas Estes sexually harassed her and made her perform oral sex on him in his office and at his home. (Daily Hampshire Gazette)

MEDIA

The Republican of Springfield (known online as MassLive) and Hearst Connecticut Media are starting to use an AI company called United Robots to write real estate stories. (Media Nation)