If the Optum purchase moves forward, Steward will directly transfer the previous provider agreements to Optum without an opportunity for physicians to negotiate a new deal, despite an entirely new corporate change-over.
Health Care
Posted inHealth Care
Could consumer representation on hospital boards have prevented Steward problem?
On The Codcast, Donahue reflected on the history of health planning councils in conversation with hosts Paul Hattis of the Lown Institute and John McDonough of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
Posted inPolitics
Political Notebook: Something Fish-y, civics swipe, charter fall
Rep. John Rogers apparently never talked to officials at Mass General Brigham, but he said in a Facebook post on April 11 that he did talk to Gov. Maura Healey, Medical Properties Trust, and “members of the MGB board of directors who love the Norwood project and want the deal done.”
Posted inOpinion
Taking a break from health care
Despite its many challenges, Massachusetts health care remains the best in the world. It has the best institutions, the best thinkers, and the best government leaders.
Posted inOpinion
Moving on from COVID, last mitigation measure is gone
Every policy has both upsides and downsides, and isolation policy is no exception. At this stage, the scales are tilted far more to the harms of the policy than the benefits.
Posted inHealth Care
When hospitals make bad neighbors
“The big flashy hospitals that everybody thinks about when we think about the largess of American health care – and they have incredible accomplishments happening inside their walls – one of the things we notice is that not only does it not translate to local communities, but hospitals actually turn out to be pretty poor neighbors a lot of the time and actually have negative effects,” said Jonathan Wynn, chair and professor of sociology at UMass Amherst.
Posted inOpinion
State needs to get tougher with hospitals, pharma
With over 30 state reports that identify consistently that provider prices and drug costs drive health care spending, the Center for Health Information and Analysis findings make it clear that hospitals and pharmaceutical companies must do their part to rein in their costs and must have accountability like the regulations on health plans.
Posted inHealth Care
Steward seeks to sell physician network to Optum
“This is a significant proposed change involving two large medical providers, both in Massachusetts and nationally, with important implications for the delivery and cost of health care across Massachusetts,” HPC Director David Seltz said.
Posted inHealth Care
On Steward crisis, Massachusetts Nurses Association head says ‘we invited it in’
As pressure ramps up to find a way to shore up the nine Massachusetts hospitals owned by Steward, which employ about 3,000 nurses represented by the nurses association, Pinkham worries that the state may be in the same position that let Steward get a foothold at the core of the state’s health care system more than a decade ago.
Posted inHealth Care
Lots of finger-pointing at health care cost growth hearing
A report released Wednesday estimated total health care spending in Massachusetts at $71.7 billion in 2022, and a per capita health care expenditure of $10,264 per resident, according to the Center for Health Information and Analysis.