"A handshake that made healthcare history; Partners HealthCare was born in 1993, but its powerhouse potential didn't fully hit home until 2000. That's when the emerging giant cut a quiet deal with Blue Cross to ratchet up insurance costs across the state. Nothing in Massachusetts healthcare has been the same since.
Third in a series of occasional articles.
This story was reported by Globe Spotlight Team members Scott Allen, Marcella Bombardieri, Michael Rezendes, and editor Thomas Farragher, as well as Liz Kowalczyk and Jeffrey Krasner of the Globe staff. It was written by Allen and Bombardieri.
It was the gentleman's agreement that accelerated a health cost crisis.
And Dr. Samuel O. Thier, chief executive of Partners HealthCare, and William C. Van Faasen, chief executive of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, weren't about to put it in writing.
Thier's lawyers cautioned that a written agreement between the state's biggest hospital company and its biggest health insurer that would make insurance more expensive statewide might raise legal questions about anticompetitive behavior, according to officials directly involved in the talks....
The deal, never before made public, marked the beginning of a period of rapid escalation in Massachusetts insurance prices, a Spotlight Team investigation has found, as Partners repeatedly used its clout to get rate increases and other hospitals tried to keep up. Individual insurance premiums have risen 8.9 percent a year ever since the "market covenant," state figures show, more than twice the annual rise in the late 1990s....
**********************
Thus it was that a company originally launched with the promise of saving hundreds of millions of dollars by consolidating two famous hospitals instead became a driving force behind the high cost of medicine in Massachusetts....
Few question the managerial and strategic acuity of Partners' management, or the devotion and skill of its doctors and nurses. But Partners has enjoyed other profound advantages in the 15 years since its founding, a period in which, according to Partners' financial statements, its patient volume more than doubled, revenue rose nearly 400 percent, and profits grew by even more....
Oh, thanks for the hand....
"Jobless turn to health lifeline; Thousands flood state program Plan helps with insurance costs" by Kay Lazar, Globe Staff | December 28, 2008
The economic crisis has produced a tsunami of newly unemployed Massachusetts residents seeking financial help with health insurance coverage....
Yeah, I'm sure the PRICE-GOUGING LOOTING is really helping a lot!
Related:
Why the Nation Doesn't Need Massachusetts Health Care
Massachusetts Health Care Takes a Seat on the S***ter
The Massachusetts Model
And here is something for you to watch: Sicko
