A bill in the Massachusetts Senate aimed at reducing price variation pits academic medical centers against community hospitals, according to a report from The Boston Globe.
To rein in costs and reduce price variation for healthcare services, the bill would pave the way for insurers to increase reimbursements to the least expensive hospitals and fine hospitals with the most spending.
The chiefs of Massachusetts' two largest hospitals — Peter Slavin, MD, president of Boston-based Massachusetts General Hospital, and Elizabeth Nabel, MD, president of Boston-based Brigham and Women's Hospital — testified Monday against the bill, calling it an attack on the academic medical centers, which take on complex cases, conduct research and serve Medicaid patients, according to the report.
Community hospital leaders, who need the funding to stay afloat, have backed the bill, according to the report. Dr. Slavin testified that Mass General and Brigham take on community hospital transfers and suggested quality of care was better at the teaching hospitals, according to the report.
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