As partnership talks continue between Partners HealthCare and Care New England, enhancing population health and value-based care remain guiding principles for Partners’ future, concentrated in the region.

For every medical center—within and beyond Partners HealthCare—the staffing of nurses is a calibrated balance of several factors: numbers of patients, intensity of care required, and the actual availability of nurses.

As highlighted in posts on this blog, Partners HealthCare is committed to advancing diversity and inclusion, across our organization and in our communities. Now, with a newly launched initiative led by the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce, we join nine other organizations committed to expanding economic opportunity for minority-owned businesses.

Here on Connect with Partners, we strive to share compelling stories from Partners HealthCare and the local and national health care industries with our readers. Our blog posts cover innovative patient care, pioneering research, legislation discussions, and other important health care issues currently affecting our communities.

In fiscal year 2017 Brigham and Women's Hospital embarked on a $150 million cost-cutting initiative. This is just one slice of Partners HealthCare's overall forward-looking effort to reduce our operating budget by $500 million.

On October 23rd, the Massachusetts State Senate held a hearing at the State House to weigh the pros and cons of a new health care bill it is considering. A major component of the proposal would set a new target for hospital spending.

For a decade now, Partners has been extending care beyond the walls of our facilities to keep patients healthy and out of the hospital. Today, this practice is commonly known as "population health." And it's working.

Partners will participate in an initiative to improve care and reduce costs for Massachusetts' Medicaid program. In March 2018, Partners will launch Partners HealthCare Choice as part of the new MassHealth Accountable Care Organization program, which aims to shift provider reimbursements from a fee-for-service model to an accountable care model.

Earlier this year, the Epic clinical and revenue cycle applications went live at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital in Boston. At the same time, Spaulding implemented Nuance Dragon Medical 360, clinical speech recognition software that replaces traditional transcription of the clinical narrative with computerized voice recognition.

As the state seeks to overhaul its Medicaid program, MassHealth, with the most ambitious redesign in more than 20 years, it has chosen no less than 18 provider groups to help launch the effort in January 2018, including Partners HealthCare.

For the past several years​, Partners HealthCare has participated in the U.S. government’s Pioneer Accountable Care Organization​​​ (ACO). By participating in an ACO, we’re required to share in the financial risk associated with our patients’ medical spending and think about alternative ways to get patients the care that they need.

A new study by researchers at Partners HealthCare, one of the nation’s largest Medicare Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs), shows that physician turnover and low numbers of enrolled patients play a key role in an ACO’s ability to meet its financial targets.

Given the breadth and depth of our research programs, meeting patient enrollment targets continues to be a challenge for many clinical research studies across Partners HealthCare.

Today, the Commonwealth’s Provider Price Variation Commission will assemble for the last time. The group has made tremendous progress examining many important issues in Massachusetts health care and has done an important job brining disparate points of view together toward a shared goal of strengthening our delivery system.

The Commonwealth’s commission on provider price variation is nearing the end of its deliberations. The commission has worked diligently since last year and co-chairs Representative Jeffrey Sanchez and Senator James Welch deserve credit for the effort they have made to find consensus among disparate perspectives.

Over the course of the past week, a number of health care cost proposals have been put on the table, which would cap or, in some cases, cut prices paid to Massachusetts hospitals.

After five years in the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Innovation Center Pioneer Accountable Care Organization (ACO) Model, which is being phased out by CMS, Partners HealthCare will continue to optimize care for Medicare beneficiaries under a similar initiative called the Next Generation ACO Model.

A series of new grants from Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) Center for Community Health and Health Equity (CCHHE) given to 14 local nonprofits will go a long way toward improving the health and wellness of children, adults and seniors in several Boston communities.

Over the course of the past several months the state’s Price Variation Commission has examined the many factors that contribute to differences in hospital prices. The group agrees that there are many factors that warrant variation in hospital pricing. For example, hospitals that care for sicker patients deserve higher levels of reimbursement.

Our most popular Connect with Partners post from 2016 was actually a package of three articles that we called “Partners HealthCare Facts.” In this series, we focused on the following three stories, each of which gave a glimpse into the Partners network and its role within the larger health care landscape. The People Who Are Par...

As 2016 comes to an end, we at Partners HealthCare and Connect with Partners wanted to reflect on some of our most popular posts from the year. As we dug into the numbers, we discovered an interesting mix of topics that, to us, show health care is as active and innovative as ever before.

This morning’s Boston Globe features an op-ed authored by Dr. David Torchiana, in which he​ expounded upon Massachusetts health care costs, and called for a measured, informed path forward as the state looks to improve our systems of care.

​In this space, we often discuss the cost of health care in Massachusetts relative to the state’s cost of living.

In 2014, the median household income in the US was just over $53,000. In Massachusetts it was $63,000, and in Boston almost $76,000. That means Bostonians earned 41% more and Massachusetts residents 18% more than the national average.

In a Boston Globe article published this week, momentum appears to be on the side of a new “hospital at home” pilot being conducted by doctors at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH).

As the state’s Price Variation Commission continues its examination of the many factors that can lead to variation among hospital prices, one essential teaching hospital function must be considered: research.

​A story in the Boston Globe today reported that Neighborhood Health Plan (NHP), an affiliate of Partners HealthCare, and MassHealth have instituted a temporary enrollment freeze on new MassHealth members joining NHP.

No one can deny the important role that pharmaceuticals play in today’s health care system and in the lives of patients every day. In Massachusetts, we also know the significant contribution that the pharmaceutical and medical device industries make to our economic growth. However, such progress is not without costs.

Much has been made of “unwarranted price variation” among health care providers in Massachusetts. Market dominance is often cited as the reason a business can negotiate higher prices. So, what’s the share for some of the Commonwealth’s major health care players within their relevant marketplace?

Most Americans know they have a credit score and they know how to see what that score is. But, most Americans have no idea that they have been assigned a health-risk score by their insurer. If these were better known, and better constructed, health insurance markets in the U.S. would work more smoothly.

Massachusetts policymakers can rightly be proud that a once-pressing health care problem, a lack of health insurance coverage for hundreds of thousands of people, has been virtually eliminated.

Addiction is a complex issue that touches every aspect of the communities we serve. At Partners, we also understand that the traditional treatment models, which considered addiction an acute disease, were too often ineffective.

This week, the state turns its eye toward the complex issue of price variation. A diverse group of stakeholders has been appointed to examine the issue and debate what -- if any -- changes need to be made in the way that different health care providers get paid for the services they provide.

This week, a new state report offered encouraging news on health care spending growth in Massachusetts. Growth in health care expenditures rose by about 3.9% last year, marking the third consecutive year cost growth in Massachusetts has been below 5%.

According to federal data released today, Partners HealthCare has successfully improved the quality of care provided to approximately 83,000 Medicare patients.

This month, Medicare announced that it will not use corrected wage data for Nantucket Cottage Hospital in establishing the rural floor for Massachusetts. What does this mean for Massachusetts hospitals and patients?

Every 90 days, Partners voluntarily issues a press release detailing our financial performance as a system. We do this out of a sense of obligation to be transparent with our patients, our employees, government, bondholders, the media as well as the rest of the health care marketplace.

The programs supported by the Center for Population Health touch many points of care during a patient’s medical experience — whether it’s treating an acute illness, managing a chronic problem, or end-of-life care.

Five percent of patients account for half of health care spending and patients with multiple chronic conditions cost up to seven times more than those with only one.

At Partners HealthCare, we’ve made enhanced treatment and prevention options a priority for the communities we serve. We also recognize this growing issue requires resources from everyone, including political leadership, law enforcement, and other health care organizations.

For more than 20 years, the Partners HealthCare workforce that supports our world-renowned institutions has been scattered across 15 locations in the Boston metro area. As a result, working across departments has been challenging for many of our employees. This week, that starts to change.

Post-acute care has often been a black box for hospital-based physicians and nurses. Traditionally defined as the place where a patient is cared for after a hospital stay, but before they return home, it has become a significant part of a patient’s experience as pressure has increased to reduce hospital lengths of stay and readmissions.

Population health management, it’s a term you hear often, but what is PHM actually trying to do? Thousands of people across Partners are working together to achieve these five goals.

Hundreds of health care organizations across the country are experimenting with the accountable care organization (ACO) concept, trying to both improve patient care and lower the cost of that care

What does it take to create a world-class health care system? More than 68,000 employees, a third of whom are doctors and nurses. On average, they have worked for Partners, or one of our institutions, for 9 years and are in their early 40’s, although the full workforce is evenly divided between Baby Boomers, Generation X’ers, and Millennials.

In the ongoing conversation about health care costs a frequently asked question is “why do some hospitals charge more than others for the same services?” The truth is, no two hospitals or health systems are quite the same. In this post are some of the reasons that care at Partner's hospitals costs more.

In a wide-ranging interview published in CommonWealth Magazine, Partners HealthCare CEO David Torchiana, MD makes a comprehensive case for the constructive role Partners plays in the state’s health care market.

“They said I had PTSD and I’m like…that’s the four-letter word that no one likes to say. I don’t have that. I’m a tough guy. I’m a Marine. What if somebody finds out? What’s going to happen to me?” After six years in the Marine Corps, Brett Cassavant told the Home Base Program in a video interview that he returned home a different person.

There’s no question that health care costs must be reined in, both in Massachusetts and across the country. At Partners HealthCare, we’re working on new cost control ideas, and keeping a close watch on the health care industry at large to see how changing models of health care are impacting the communities we serve. Accountable ...

As Massachusetts led the nation in tackling access to health care in 2006, we are leading the way on the cost question, too. Numerous state agencies and The Boston Globe have reported on the record low cost growth that has occurred in Massachusetts since 2009. Nationally, the rate of cost increases has been the lowest since thes...

At Partners HealthCare, we’ve made it a priority to integrate behavioral health care into our primary care practices, particularly through population health management programs. In this post, Dr. Brent Forester, who heads up these efforts, explains the important role of screening primary care patients for mental health condition...

A report released by the Massachusetts Health Policy Commission (HPC) last week has once again brought the complex issue of price variation to the forefront of health policy conversations. While the HPC and others are quick to highlight providers that charge higher prices than their competitors, their conclusions leave out a num...

In Massachusetts, we’re known for offering a standard of medical care that is among the best in the nation and even the world – patients come from all over for treatment at our hospitals. We’re also known for having some of the nation’s highest medical costs. However, while health care spending in Massachusetts is high in absolu...

Reducing the cost of health care is a top priority for Partners HealthCare. For the past 40 years, per capita health expenditures in the U.S. have risen at a rate higher than inflation, with challenging consequences. For U.S. employers operating in a global marketplace, rising health care costs can be crippling to the bottom lin...

Occasionally, as part of the ongoing health care cost dialogue, the issue of hospital assets is raised and the question is asked – why do hospitals need “reserves”? Most hospitals and health systems across the state have some level of investment assets and there are good reasons for it.

This is the first in a series of occasional posts from Partners HealthCare President and CEO David Torchiana, M.D. I was recently given the opportunity to talk about Partners HealthCare at a breakfast meeting of the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce. The topics included concerns about the opioid crisis, our commitment to commu...

This week, the Health Policy Commission met for their annual Cost Trend Hearing to address the challenges our industry faces in controlling health care costs. While many questions remain, some progress has been made, and insurers and providers alike were on hand to share the efforts that collectively they have taken to reduce co...

Today’s health care challenges call for innovative ways to improve the quality of care while reducing costs. For three years, we’ve been pursuing new solutions through the U.S. government’s Pioneer Accountable Care Organization (ACO) program, and federal data released this week show that in the past year, we’ve slowed healt...

At Partners HealthCare, we know that health begins at the very start of our patients’ lives; the first few months are crucial. Recognizing this, Partners employees have joined together for the past four years to provide baby baskets to new families. Throughout the Partners system, employees donate items that new parents need &...

At Partners HealthCare, we’re committed to providing better care, close to home for all of the communities we serve. That’s why we’re announcing a plan to improve care and coordination with North Shore Medical Center (NSMC) by serving the needs of the region more efficiently and significantly improving access to behavioral healt...

Since 2012, Partners HealthCare has been one of the participants in the U.S. government’s Pioneer Accountable Care Organization (ACO) pilot program. In both 2012 and 2013, previous reporting showed that Partners had decreased the rate of growth of health care costs. Last week, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Service (CMS)...

With the recent publication of our annual report, we took an opportunity to look back over the past year at advances and achievements throughout the Partners HealthCare system. Through strong partnerships and system-wide efforts, we’ve continued to improve the quality of health care – and equally important, make it more afford...

At Partners HealthCare, we are always looking for ways to improve the quality and efficiency of patient care while lowering health care costs. One of the benefits of our integrated health care system is the ability to implement change on a large scale. As a part of that effort, the Partners Healthcare Clinical Process Improvemen...

https://youtu.be/e8SsBonSGyA “To make sure folks keep earning higher wages down the road, we have to do more to help Americans upgrade their skills,” President Obama said in his State of the Union address earlier this year. In response, the White House launched the Upskill Initiative to help prepare workers of all ages for high...

Earning a degree can be the difference between holding a steady job and pursuing a successful career. At Partners HealthCare we’re committed to creating opportunities for employees to go farther in their careers through workforce development and tuition reimbursement programs.

This is the first in an ongoing series by our Quality, Safety & Value team highlighting Partners HealthCare’s efforts to develop and implement best practices across our network of hospitals to improve the quality of care patients receive while reducing costs. At Partners HealthCare, we’re investing in system-wide clinical teams...

We’re teaming up with some of the country’s largest insurers and health care systems to promote new payment models for health care providers that improve the quality of care and help lower costs. As The New York Times reported this week, the Health Care Transformation Task Force will advocate for new payment structures that are ...

How has American healthcare fared since the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was passed? That’s the wide-ranging question that Steven Brill’s new book “America’s Bitter Pill” strives to answer, and Brill’s response is more positive than one might expect. Brill explores the impact of America’s evolving healthcare system on patients, pr...

Partners HealthCare CEO Gary Gottlieb, MD, recently spoke with Modern Healthcare about some of the strategies we’ve pursued to expand access to affordable health care, closer to our patients’ homes. One major effort of recent years has involved implementing population health management across our system. This serves a greater...

At Partners HealthCare, we’re dedicated to improving access to affordable, high-quality care, closer to patients’ homes. In early 2015, we will partner with MedSpring Urgent Care to open new urgent care centers in Eastern Massachusetts – and offer patients a lower-cost alternative to emergency department visits. Across the US, ...

L–R: State Senator Patricia Jehlen; Mark Ehrlich, New England Regional Council of Carpenters; Brian Doherty, Building and Trades Council of the Metropolitan District; City of Somerville Alderman Bill White; City of Somerville Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone; Dr. Gary Gottlieb, President & CEO, Partners HealthCare; Congressman Michael...

Dr. Gary Gottlieb has announced that he will be stepping down as Partners HealthCare’s President and CEO next summer to pursue a new opportunity as CEO of Partners In Health. Dr. Gottlieb remains deeply committed to pursuing partnerships with South Shore Hospital and Hallmark Health that are fundamental to our vision of exp...

Phil Tropeano and Dr. Richard Alexander On a recent Sunday in August, Phil Tropeano gathered with nearly 50 family members and friends to celebrate his 92nd birthday. There was also an extra reason to blow out the candles – the birth of Tropeano’s great-great-grandson, Nicholas. The party came a few weeks after Tropeano...

At Partners HealthCare, we believe that when it comes to health care, “high quality” and “affordablility” can go hand-in-hand. Last week, we saw that point proven through our participation in the U.S. government’s Pioneer Accountable Care Organizations (ACO) initiative. For the second year in a row, Partners lowered health care...

For survivors of domestic violence, recovering from abuse can involve both emotional and physical reconstruction. A unique partnership between Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary expands access to much-needed treatment by providing free or low-cost care to women, men, children and transge...

It was late spring of this year when Shirley Hutchins's chronic breathing problems suddenly got worse. She had been diagnosed with pulmonary hypertension, or high blood pressure in the lungs, and pulmonary fibrosis, a kind of scarring on her lung tissue. But even after using oxygen on a part-time basis for nearly a year, she ...

Earlier this week we visited Harbor Health Services in Hyannis to announce $3 million in grants to health centers on Cape Cod, the Islands and partnering community health centers (CHCs). In our two years partnering with Neighborhood Health Plan and the Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers we’ve awarded over $10 mill...

http://youtu.be/-H-Xw3AQFO4 Partners HealthCare president and CEO Dr. Gary Gottlieb appeared on WGBH’s “Greater Boston” last night to discuss our proposed partnerships with South Shore Hospital, Hallmark Health and Harbor Medical Associates. “Our vision is really about our patients -- getting them care where they live,” Dr. Go...

There has been a lot of conversation over the past few weeks about the agreement we reached with the Massachusetts Attorney General to acquire South Shore Hospital, Hallmark Health and Harbor Medical Associates. While a few of our competitors claim that these new affiliations would give Partners HealthCare too great a share in t...

Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley has filed an agreement in Suffolk Superior Court that would allow us to move forward on partnerships with South Shore Hospital, Hallmark Health and Harbor Medical Associates. Our vision offers substantive benefits for patients in these communities. At Partners HealthCare, we want to...

At Partners HealthCare, we’re working to bring high-quality, affordable health care closer to the communities we serve. A recent agreement in principle that we reached with the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office marked a significant step forward in achieving that goal. The agreement allows us to move forward with new partne...

We’re pleased to announce that we have reached an agreement in principle with the Massachusetts Attorney General’s office that will allow Partners HealthCare to move ahead with partnerships with South Shore Hospital, Harbor Medical Associates and Hallmark Health System. These affiliations support our mission to offer the h...

It has been exactly two years since South Shore Hospital, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Partners HealthCare made public their collective vision for a more coordinated, more accessible and cost-effective health care system for patients in southeastern Massachusetts. Today, The Boston Globe published this opinion piece by South...

http://vimeo.com/88760184 Our population health management initiatives promote better coordinated, more accessible patient care while also helping to control costs over the long-term. Earlier this month, Partners Vice President of Population Health Management Dr. Timothy Ferris discussed our approach with Dr. Rebecca Rosen, sen...

In an editorial published today, The Patriot Ledger wrote that our proposed merger with South Shore Hospital in Weymouth would enable the hospital to serve a broader population in the region. The Quincy-based newspaper noted that existing clinical and development partnerships have already bolstered the ability of South Shore Ho...

At Partners HealthCare, we’re committed to expanding access to high-quality, affordable care for residents across Massachusetts, and we believe that our proposed partnership with South Shore Hospital will help bring that vision to residents south of Boston. We project $27 million per year in patient savings through our partners...

A study released yesterday found that hospital consolidation yields a variety of benefits for both patients and communities. According to the study, more integrated health systems are better equipped to control costs and improve patient care. The study, funded by the Federation of American Hospitals and prepared by the Center f...

South Shore Hospital Last month the Massachusetts Health Policy Commission (HPC) released its preliminary “Cost and Market Impact Review” of the proposed merger of Partners HealthCare, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and South Shore Hospital. As The Boston Globe reported this morning, today we submit a detailed response explaining...

As the new year begins, we at Partners HealthCare remain as committed as ever to increasing access to affordable health care and improving health outcomes in the communities we serve. To achieve that, we’re building a “new medical model” that will treat patients in a better, more cost-effective manner, as Partners CEO Gary Gottl...

As we prepare to celebrate Thanksgiving with our friends and families, we are mindful of the challenges and stress the holidays can bring for some of the families in our communities. One of those challenges is hunger. This holiday season we’re helping to address this issue and providing grants - $10,000 in total - to communi...