cmonfils | August 10, 2011
By Anonymous Posted Aug 09, 2011 @ 04:23 PM
STATE HOUSE, BOSTON — Massachusetts and Vermont led the nation in 2010 with average, individual market health insurance premiums topping $400 per person per month, about double the national average, according to an analysis released Tuesday. (more…)
cmonfils | May 27, 2011
May 26, 2011 By Liz Kowalczyk, Globe Staff
A new report from Governor Deval Patrick’s administration documenting what hospitals are paid for common procedures reveals some eye-opening differences in price. Also noteworthy is that even routine procedures, like removal of the appendix and gallbladder, are concentrated in the highest-priced hospitals, pushing up health care costs even more. (more…)
cmonfils | March 25, 2011
www.boston.com By Kay Lazar Globe Staff / March 25, 2011
The number of Massachusetts residents enrolled in high-deductible health insurance plans nearly doubled last year as employers and consumers looked for lower-cost options amid soaring medical prices.
A report out today says people in these plans indeed spent significantly less on their medical care, compared with families with more traditional coverage, but they also cut back on preventive health care, such as cancer screenings and childhood vaccinations. Surprisingly, they did so even though most of the plans allowed people to get preventive care without paying an up-front deductible. (more…)
cmonfils | March 14, 2011
ATTENTION: Docket Clerk Hearings and Appeals, Division of Insurance 1000 Washington Street, Suite 810 Boston, MA 02118-6200Sent via electronic mail to: Doidocket.Mailbox@state.ma.us
REFERENCE: Docket No. G2011-03
Proposed New Regulation 211 CMR 148.00 – Registration and Reporting Requirements for Third-Party Administrators
SUMMARY: The following document is divided into two parts. The first part consists of an overall business impact statement, summarizing the severe detriment this proposed regulation will cause for TPAs and employer groups in Massachusetts. The second part outlines a few of the many problems with the proposed regulation, in its current state.
Please accept this business impact statement and the outlined comments, provided to you in collaboration with businesses across the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
Respectfully submitted, /s/ The Phia Group, LLC (more…)cmonfils | February 18, 2011
Patrick proposes health fee overhaul
Seeks power to examine insurer contracts as part of shift to budgeted care
By Liz Kowalczyk Globe Staff / February 17, 2011
Governor Deval Patrick plans to file long-awaited legislation today that would give him authority to scrutinize the fees paid to hospitals and doctors, part of a proposal to transform how providers are compensated and to curb rising health care costs, according to high-level administration officials. (more…)
cmonfils | January 25, 2011
Union of Tufts, Harvard Pilgrim would pose a stronger Mass. competitor to Blue Cross
By Robert Weisman and Kay Lazar
Globe Staff / January 25, 2011
The state’s second- and third-largest health plans, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care and Tufts Health Plan, are set to tell their employees today that they are exploring a merger that would reshape the region’s health insurance landscape.
Harvard Pilgrim and Tufts are close to signing a memorandum of understanding that would combine their operations in four New England states and make them a stronger competitor to the market leader, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, in their home state, according to several people who have been briefed on the transaction. They asked not to be identified because they were not authorized to discuss the deal. (more…)
cmonfils | January 19, 2011
Stacy Borans, MD
In November 2010, Massachusetts health officials published the most comprehensive state database in the country listing payments drug companies and medical device makers made to health care providers in the state. The report lists $35.7 million in payments from hundreds of companies for the six months between July 1 and Dec. 31, 2009, for speaking, consulting, food, educational programs, marketing studies, as well as charitable donations. About half of that money ($16 million) went to physicians. (more…)
Adam V. Russo | November 22, 2010
By Liz Kowalczyk of The Boston Globe, www.boston.com
Massachusetts health officials published online today the most comprehensive state database in the country listing payments drug companies and medical device makers made to hospitals, doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and other health care providers in the state.
The report lists $35.7 million in payments from hundreds of companies for the six months between July 1 and Dec. 31, 2009, for speaking, consulting, food, educational programs, marketing studies, as well as charitable donations. Nearly half of that money — $16.4 million — went to physicians. (more…)
Adam V. Russo | August 12, 2010
CCH® BENEFITS, www.hr.cch.com
California
The California Public Employee’s Retirement System (CalPERS) has approved an average increase of more than 9% in health premiums next year for state and local government workers. CalPERS blamed the rate increase on rising costs for hospital care, doctor visits, and prescriptions. The increase will mean higher premiums for public agencies and their 1.3 million employees, dependents, and retirees. For more information, visit http://www.calpers.ca.gov/. (more…)
Adam V. Russo | July 9, 2010
The Wall Street Journal below mirrors everything I have been saying at conferences across the country. I guess I’m going to have to start calling the Mass health plan a “train wreck” too.
By Joseph Rago of The Wall Street Journal, www.wsj.com
President Obama said earlier this year that the health-care bill that Congress passed three months ago is “essentially identical” to the Massachusetts universal coverage plan that then-Gov. Mitt Romney signed into law in 2006. No one but Mr. Romney disagrees. (more…)
Adam V. Russo | June 28, 2010
Massachusetts. The state senate has approved a bill that would require wealthy hospitals to pay $100 million in a one-time contribution to help small businesses pay for health insurance premiums. The bill would let businesses with 50 or fewer workers form cooperatives to purchase insurance at a lower cost. The money paid by wealthier hospitals is estimated to save small businesses 2.5% in premium costs. Another provision of the bill requires that insurers spend 90% of premium dollars on care and 10% or less on administrative costs. For more information, visit http://www.mass.gov/legis/.
Adam V. Russo | June 25, 2010
Move a blow to Patrick’s health strategy
By Jenn Abelson and Todd Wallack, The Boston Globe, www.boston.com
In a blow to the Patrick administration, an insurance appeals board yesterday overturned the state’s cap on health premium increases for small business and individual customers covered by Harvard Pilgrim Health Care.
The three-member administrative panel — which consists of attorneys who work for the state Division of Insurance — found that rate increases Harvard Pilgrim initially sought in April are reasonable given what it must pay to hospitals and doctors. (more…)
Adam V. Russo | June 15, 2010
FORTUNE — The best guide to how President Obama’s historic health-care legislation will reshape the nation’s medical marketplace and fiscal future is the pioneering model in Massachusetts. The Bay State’s reform program started in late 2006, and it shares virtually all the major features of the new federal plan. (more…)
Adam V. Russo | June 8, 2010
Elyas Bakhtiari, for HealthLeaders Media, May 26, 2010
Once again, Massachusetts is providing a testing ground for national healthcare policy. While the U.S. Congress is only beginning a debate about regulating and capping insurance premium increases, the Massachusetts government has already denied proposed rate hikes, and insurers’ reactions in the state may foreshadow what’s to come at the national level. (more…)
Adam V. Russo | April 29, 2010
Health network examined for possible antitrust violations
By Robert Weisman and Liz Kowalczyk
The US Department of Justice has opened a civil investigation into possible anticompetitive behavior by Partners HealthCare System Inc., the region’s most powerful hospital and physician network.
In a letter sent to Partners and the state’s three largest health insurers on April 19, investigators from the Justice Department’s antitrust division demanded documents relating to Partners’ “contracting and other practices in health care markets in Eastern Massachusetts.’’ (more…)
