Boston-based Mass General Brigham's plan to construct three outpatient surgery centers would lower healthcare prices and reduce expenditures on healthcare services, according to a recent independent report by Sean May, PhD, of Charles River Associates.
The predicted changes in the service areas of the plan are "modest and unlikely to meaningfully change the system's bargaining leverage with health insurers," the report said.
Additionally, healthcare spending for patients would drop if they switch from higher-priced hospitals to the MGB outpatient centers.
The analysis opposes the report released by Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey in November, which said the plan would raise healthcare costs and create about $385 million in profits a year for the hospital.
The Coalition to Protect Community Care, which represents competitors of the hospital, argued that the report doesn't show how the plan will hurt other healthcare providers in the area, The Boston Globe reported Dec. 28.
"We are disappointed to see such an incomplete analysis that shortchanges the people of Massachusetts and confirms our fears that the evaluation would be narrow in focus and skewed in favor of MGB," the coalition said in a statement, The Boston Globe reported.