Meanwhile, Dorsum Inward Massachusetts
Tuesday, September 9, 2003
It's been approximately fourth dimension since I commented on issues of marketplace say-so inward Massachusetts, but a recent storey yesteryear Bruce Mohl at Commonwealth Magazine caught my interest. He writes nearly a petition beingness supported yesteryear a wellness attention union, SEIU, too Steward Health Care that would mandate a flattening of charge per unit of measurement disparities with the state's hospitals.
The Massachusetts Hospital Association opposes the ballot question. Mohl notes:
All but ane of the infirmary association’s board members caput institutions that would create goodness financially from the ballot question, but soundless they guide keep formed a united front end against it. Their reasons vary. Some are wary of regime toll regulation; others don’t intend a ballot query is the best agency to laid upward wellness attention policy. Whatever their motivation, the united front end benefits Partners HealthCare, the ane association fellow member who would guide keep a big hitting if the ballot query becomes law.
Mohl notes that nether the proposed legislation:
Lowell General Hospital would have $27 million. Cambridge Health Alliance would larn $22 million. CareGroup, which owns Beth State of Israel Deaconess too Mount Auburn Hospital, would selection upward a full of $17 million. Baystate Health too Lahey Health would each have $10 million, New England Baptist would larn $7 million, Boston Medical Center would recover nearly $4 million, too Tufts Medical Center nearly $3 million.
He likewise reports:
A origin familiar with the board’s discussions said Partners wields enormous might within the association, since it supplies twenty to 25 per centum of its revenue. The origin said the infirmary association has pledged $14 meg to the ballot query fight, with $12 meg coming from Partners too $2 meg from the association’s other members. The Rasky Baerlein theatre is beingness enlisted to run the ballot campaign, the origin said.
What to a greater extent than bear witness create you lot demand of the might too intimidation that Partners tin wield with the insiders of the Boston wellness attention market?
Some inward the MHA notice inimical the prospect of rule of infirmary pricing yesteryear the state. Oddly, approximately of those really people are with the showtime to complain that the market-power-based rate-making organization electrical current employed yesteryear Blue Cross Blue Shield too the other insurers is unjust. Now, when they could act, they adopt an ostrich-like pose. Do they actually intend that "a infirmary association subcommittee headed yesteryear Michael Widmer, the one-time caput of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation" volition notice ways to address the pricing differentials? Over the course of study of the final decade, ii Attorneys General guide keep documented the disparities work too its untoward resultant on overall wellness attention costs inward the state, too the MHA has failed to create anything nearly it.
Meanwhile, Steward's back upward for the petition is humorous. That organization has ever bragged nearly beingness a "low-cost" choice to the pricey academic medical centers. It straightaway seems to realize that it is non actually "low-cost" but only "low-paid." Meanwhile, for years it sent its third referrals to Partners' Massachusetts General Hospital, the highest paid third center--a movement that undercut the profitability of the global payment based organization Steward has chosen to sign with insurers.
In short, everybody seems to desire to guide keep it both ways. Except Partners. Which has is (again) their way. Bravo, Partners! Well done.
The Massachusetts Hospital Association opposes the ballot question. Mohl notes:
All but ane of the infirmary association’s board members caput institutions that would create goodness financially from the ballot question, but soundless they guide keep formed a united front end against it. Their reasons vary. Some are wary of regime toll regulation; others don’t intend a ballot query is the best agency to laid upward wellness attention policy. Whatever their motivation, the united front end benefits Partners HealthCare, the ane association fellow member who would guide keep a big hitting if the ballot query becomes law.
Mohl notes that nether the proposed legislation:
Lowell General Hospital would have $27 million. Cambridge Health Alliance would larn $22 million. CareGroup, which owns Beth State of Israel Deaconess too Mount Auburn Hospital, would selection upward a full of $17 million. Baystate Health too Lahey Health would each have $10 million, New England Baptist would larn $7 million, Boston Medical Center would recover nearly $4 million, too Tufts Medical Center nearly $3 million.
He likewise reports:
A origin familiar with the board’s discussions said Partners wields enormous might within the association, since it supplies twenty to 25 per centum of its revenue. The origin said the infirmary association has pledged $14 meg to the ballot query fight, with $12 meg coming from Partners too $2 meg from the association’s other members. The Rasky Baerlein theatre is beingness enlisted to run the ballot campaign, the origin said.
What to a greater extent than bear witness create you lot demand of the might too intimidation that Partners tin wield with the insiders of the Boston wellness attention market?
Some inward the MHA notice inimical the prospect of rule of infirmary pricing yesteryear the state. Oddly, approximately of those really people are with the showtime to complain that the market-power-based rate-making organization electrical current employed yesteryear Blue Cross Blue Shield too the other insurers is unjust. Now, when they could act, they adopt an ostrich-like pose. Do they actually intend that "a infirmary association subcommittee headed yesteryear Michael Widmer, the one-time caput of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation" volition notice ways to address the pricing differentials? Over the course of study of the final decade, ii Attorneys General guide keep documented the disparities work too its untoward resultant on overall wellness attention costs inward the state, too the MHA has failed to create anything nearly it.
Meanwhile, Steward's back upward for the petition is humorous. That organization has ever bragged nearly beingness a "low-cost" choice to the pricey academic medical centers. It straightaway seems to realize that it is non actually "low-cost" but only "low-paid." Meanwhile, for years it sent its third referrals to Partners' Massachusetts General Hospital, the highest paid third center--a movement that undercut the profitability of the global payment based organization Steward has chosen to sign with insurers.
In short, everybody seems to desire to guide keep it both ways. Except Partners. Which has is (again) their way. Bravo, Partners! Well done.