Kyle Cheney, State House News Service, January 25, 2012

Taunton - A state senator from Taunton vowed Tuesday to fight the Patrick administration's move to close Taunton Hospital, a 169-bed mental health facility, by the end of the year and transfer its patients to other facilities.

Kyle Cheney, State House News Service, January 25, 2012

Taunton - Taunton Hospital, a 169-bed state mental health facility, will be shuttered by the end of the year and its patients transferred to facilities in Worcester and Tewksbury, the Patrick administration announced Tuesday, describing the decision as an effort to cut costs in the mental health system and maintain the state's 626 beds.

John J. Monahan, Worcester Telegram & Gazette, January 24, 2012 Boston - Taunton State Hospital will close by the end of the year and most of its 169 patients will be transferred to the new Worcester Recovery Center and Hospital, a Department of Mental Health official said today. The closure of the hospital, slated to be completed by December 31, will not result in any reductions in the overall number of inpatient beds or Taunton State Hospital's 410 employees, all of whom will be offered job opportunities at the new Worcester facility, the DMH said. Paulette Song, spokeswoman for DMH, confirmed this afternoon that Taunton State Hospital will close by December 31 ... Taunton

David Abel, Boston Globe, January 24, 2012 After more than 150 years of housing mentally ill patients, Taunton State Hospital will close its doors, and its remaining patients will be sent to other facilities by the end of the year, state officials said yesterday. The closing will help pay for a new hospital for the mentally ill in Worcester, which is scheduled to open this summer and may house some of the 169 patients still in Taunton, state mental health officials said. Other patients will move into their own apartments or the equivalent of group homes linked to an array of support services ... State

Associated Press, January 24, 2012

The Patrick administration is planning to close Taunton State Hospital, citing budget constraints and the opening of a new psychiatric facility in Worcester.

Department of Mental Health Commissioner Barbara Leadholm informed workers and other staffers at the psychiatric hospital today of the decision to shutter the 169-bed facility by year’s end.

Paulette Song, spokeswoman for the Executive Office of Health and Human Services, confirmed the decision. The administration said the hospital is antiquated compared to the state of the art Worcester Recovery Center and Hospital. Some of the patients will be transferred to Worcester.

Carey Goldberg, WBUR, January 24, 2012 The Department of Mental Health plans to close Taunton State Hospital, one of the six state-run psychiatric hospitals in Massachusetts, by the end of this year. The move is part of a plan to redistribute the placement of patients with chronic and severe mental illness as a large new state hospital opens in Worcester this summer. Department of Mental Health spokeswoman Anna Chinappi said that department staffers, including Commissioner Barbara Leadholm, were in Taunton today to announce the plans for closure to the hospital staff. ... Massachusetts

Frontline Caregivers Say State’s Mental Health System is Already in Shambles.
Shortage of Beds & Lack of Funding Jeopardize Patient Safety.
Proposed Closing Will Be Devastating for the State’s Most Vulnerable Residents. Massachusetts Nurses Association/National Nurses United, January 24, 2012 Taunton – The Massachusetts Department of Mental Health (DMH) informed members of the Massachusetts Nurses Association/National Nurses United (MNA/NNU) of their plan to close Taunton State Hospital, one of only six state operated mental health facilities in the state to care for people suffering from acute and chronic mental illness. ... State

Anika Clark, Fall River Standard-Times, January 19, 2012 Steward Health Care System has taken one step closer to expanding its footprint in New England medical care. The Rhode Island Department of Health, with the state's Office of the Attorney General, announced Wednesday that a hospital conversion application Steward submitted with Landmark Medical Center in Woonsocket has been determined to be complete. This follows an October determination that the application was incomplete and kicks off the state's formal review, according to a news release, which said this process must be finished within 180 days. ... Steward

Robert Weisman, Boston Globe, January 19, 2012 A new contract struck between Partners HealthCare System Inc. and Tufts Health Plan will help control health care costs in Massachusetts by limiting payment increases to Partners’ hospitals and doctors to the rate of inflation, both sides said yesterday. Partners, the state’s largest hospital and physicians organization, tore up the last two years of its existing contract with the health insurer, replacing the pact with a new four-year agreement that, while still giving Partners more money each year, will lower Tufts’ reimbursements ... Partners

Julie M. Donnelly, Boston Business Journal, January 18, 2012

Partners HealthCare, the parent of Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, has agreed to receive lower reimbursements from Tufts Health Plan than previously negotiated. The two sides re-opened an existing contract in response to calls from business and government leaders to rein in the cost of health care for employers and consumers.

This new agreement will not reduce anyone’s health care premiums, but will reduce annual increases to the rate of overall inflation, at 2 percent to 3 percent, in each of the next two years. The two sides say this results in a savings of $45 million over two years over what would have been paid by Tufts Health Plan members.

Partners: Rethinking care delivery to control costs. Martha Bebinger, WBUR, January 18, 2012 The state’s largest hospital network, Partners Health Care, has signed a second contract that trims health care spending. A deal out today with Tufts Health Plan is expected to reduce payments over four years by $105 million dollars: Partners opened an existing contract with Tufts to re-negotiated a lower payment rate. For Tufts members that means roughly 1% off premium increase they might otherwise see. Partners CEO Gary Gotlieb says Partners doctors and hospitals realize that rising health care costs are a burden on families, businesses and the government. ... Tufts

Boston Herald, January 18, 2012

The state’s biggest medical provider has reworked a contract with Tufts Health Plan with a new deal that will reduce insurance reimbursement rates by $105 million over the next four years, the companies announced today.

Partners HealthCare System has been renegotiating contracts with major health insurers in an effort to lower health care premiums for consumers. The risk-sharing structure of the contracts give Partners a financial incentive to manage expenses while providing high-quality care.

Richard Asinof, Providence Business News, January 18, 2012 Providence – US Representative David N. Cicilline on Tuesday led a group of citizens urging Rhode Island regulators to speed approval of the sale of the Landmark Medical Center of Woonsocket and the Rehabilitation Hospital of Rhode Island. The for-profit Steward Health Care and Landmark reached an asset purchase agreement of $71.6 million in June. ... Group

Tammy Daniels, iBerkshires, January 15, 2012 Adams - Northern Berkshire Healthcare could emerge from Chapter 11 in the next few months but it's recovery will be ongoing. "When we come out of bankrupty in the next couple months we can be reasonably profitable," NBH President Bill Frado Jr. told some 50 members of the Maple Grove Civic Club on Sunday, adding "We're going to be on the line all the time." The struggles of North Adams Regional Hospital in a time of rising costs and decreasing revenue are being replicated across the nation, he said. "We're kind of in the vanguard with what's going on in community hospitals." ... NARH

Five area hospital and doctor groups are trying out this new model, which is designed to improve the care of Medicare patients while lowering the costs of treating them. Chelsea Conaboy, Boston Globe, January 9, 2012 More than 150,000 seniors in Eastern Massachusetts who are enrolled in traditional Medicare plans have received a letter in the mail - or will soon - informing them that their doctors are part of a newfangled health care system. Each accountable care organization, or ACO, is aimed at making sure patients get “the right care, in the right place, at the right time,’’ the letter says. ... Understanding