Category: Healthcare

Baker Takes $750M from MassHealth with New Budget

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On Wednesday, March 4th, Governor Charlie Baker filed a $38.1 billion budget proposal which includes recommendations for increased spending on objectives like local aid, transportation and higher education. The budget also proposes cutting more than $750 million from MassHealth to help fill a projected deficit of $1.8 billion.

For his first budget, Baker says he inherited a gaping shortfall in the available sources of revenue required to continue funding state government at the current level of service. The gap, officials say, was caused by an 8% increase in spending within the current budget year and reliance on one-time sources of up to $1.2 billion in funding.

Baker will file two pieces of companion legislation with the budget, including a bill to establish an early retirement program. The second bill entails his proposals for a tax amnesty program for first time filers, a gradual elimination of the film tax credit program, and an expansion of the earned income tax credit to 30 percent of the federal credit.

Without withdrawing from the state’s savings, increasing taxes or raising fees, Baker’s budget proposes to limit growth in spending by 3 percent, or $1.1 billion. It would also reduce the state’s reliance on one-time sources of funding by half. MassHealth, one of the largest expenses in the state budget, will grow by $950 million. This will represent a 5.6 percent increase in the nearly $14 billion Medicaid program, which provides healthcare to 1.7 million low and moderate income residents.

MassHealth had been expected to grow by 16 percent in fiscal 2016. However, Baker’s administration have budgeted $761 million in net savings back to the state, which includes $400 million in cuts at MassHealth after a redetermination process for 1.2 million subscribers. Budget officials have stated that chiropractic benefits would no longer be covered, though adult dental coverage and coverage for autism services to 10,000 children will be extended.

Besides trimming funds from MassHealth, the Baker Administration also plans to direct all capital gains taxes into the general fund in fiscal 2016. This represents nearly $300 million that would otherwise be earmarked for the stabilization account, currently holding $1.2 billion. $178 million in savings has also been budgeted from an early retirement fund while another $125 million will be taken from the Group Insurance Commission by increasing deductibles and premium co-pays, as well as increasing the employee health insurance contribution for all employees hired after 2003.

Other solutions to the budget gap include:

  • $100 million from a tax amnesty program;
  • $30 million from the sale of the Sullivan courthouse in Cambridge;
  • $125 million for actions like the state hiring freeze and the annualization of emergency cuts, and;
  • A minimum $17 million in federal emergency snow disaster money expected to arrive in July.

Most budgets were level funded, including the majority of agencies that faced budget cuts in fiscal 2015 to solve a mid-year deficit, which were level-funded to post-cut numbers. Exceptions included spending increases at MassHealth, health and human services like the Department of Children and Families, a $105 million increase for Chapter 70 school aid, and a $34 million increase in unrestricted local aid. The budget also includes a 3 percent raise in funding for higher education campuses, police training, and summer job programs.

With Plainridge Park Casino scheduled to open this summer, Officials say the governor has budgeted an additional $87 million in revenues that will be used, along with lottery profits, to fund unrestricted local aid in cities and towns. Roughly $70 million in legislative earmarks that had been engraved into the fiscal 2015 state budget have been eliminated.

Central Massachusetts Stands Out in Nursing Home Rankings

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It seems that Massachusetts may be the best place to go for rehabilitation and aftercare. Eleven of Central Massachusetts’ nursing homes have received the top rating in U.S. News & World Report’s annual list of best nursing homes.

The list for 2015 bestows five-star status to four Worcester facilities: Beaumont at University Campus, Holy Trinity Eastern Orthodox Nursing & Rehabilitation Center, Jewish Healthcare Center, and Notre Dame Long Term Care Center. Other area nursing homes earning the distinction are: Blaire House and Countryside Health Care, both in Milford, Coleman House in Northborough, Sandalwood Center in Oxford, Shrewsbury Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Shrewsbury, Whittier Westborough Transitional Care Unit, in Westborough, and St. Camillus Health Center in Whitinsville.

Millions of Americans will spend at least some time in a nursing home this year, either for rehabilitation after a hospital stay or as long-term residents. The Best Nursing Home 2015 list, released in February, is intended as a resource to help find the best place to receive aftercare. The list covers ratings for nearly 16,000 nursing homes across the country. Of those included on the list, only 3,392 or 21.7% received a rating of five stars.

The Best Nursing Homes list is a searchable database providing valuable information about the type of care received, facility health and safety standards, and staffing. The profile for each facility displays any health and safety violations, performance ratings in various clinical categories, and the amount of time that nursing staff spends with residents.

The information is presented with comparisons between the state averages and national averages for each category. For instance, nurses at Beaumont at University Campus spend an average of 1 hour and 39 minutes with patients, only one minute behind the national average. Users can even access the general results of previous fire and health inspections, with citations for an violations the facility may have received.

This is the seventh year the magazine has produced its annual list of aftercare facilities. The list draws on data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid services, a federal agency that sets and enforces standards for nursing homes. For those in need of aftercare, rehabilitation or long-term care, the list is a valuable resource to help find the best nursing home and understanding exactly what puts that facility ahead of the rest.

Boston Scientific Purchases American Medical Systems Unit for 1.6 Billion

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Boston Scientific, a Marlborough-based life sciences company, announced on Monday that it has agreed to acquire the urology division of American Medical Systems for $1.6 billion. Boston Scientific expects to close the acquisition in the third quarter of 2015. This will be the company’s largest acquisition since it purchased Guidant Corp, a manufacturer of cardiovascular products, in 2006 for $27.2 billion.

American Medical Systems (AMS), a division of Endo International, published reports last week that Boston Scientific was to close a deal with Endo for an unspecified AMS unit. The urology unit of AMS, based in Minnetonka, Minnesota, employs roughly 800 workers worldwide. It covers the men’s health and prostate health divisions of AMS. The unit is being sold for $1.6 billion up front, plus a potential for another $50 million based on the unit’s sales in 2016. Acquisition of the urology branch encompasses AMS products that treat erectile dysfunction, male urinary incontinence, and benign prostatic hyperplasia.

Boston Scientific (BSX) states the company’s technologies complement their portfolio of products that treat other urological conditions, including kidney stones, pelvic organ prolapse, female incontinence and abnormal uterine bleeding. This follows their purchase of Bayer AG and IOGyn last year. IOGyn, based in California, received FDA approval for a system treating uterine fibroids and polyps. AMS products that treat urology related issues in women will not be included in the deal.

Over the course of the previous year, the AMS unit generated $400 million in sales and adjusted operating income of about $130 million, with net income of around $60 million according to BSX. President and CEO of Boston Scientific, Mike Mahoney, expects the acquisition will create a business with annual sales of nearly $1 billion and will enable “strong future growth prospects through portfolio innovation and international market expansion.” BSX anticipates more than $50 million in annual pre-tax cost savings by the end of 2018 with boosted profits starting as early as 2016.

The announcement comes less than a month after an out-of-court settlement with competitor Johnson & Johnson. BSX paid $600 million to their rivals after Johnson & Johnson disputed their purchase of Guidant. The settlement avoided a $7.2 billion lawsuit filed by the rival company that had agreed to purchase Guidant before BSX acquired it for $27.2 billion.

Employee Engagement and Wellness Top Priorities

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Employee engagement and wellness continues to be a hot topic in business circles, as executives look for more ways to increase productivity and boost growth. At the same time, the job market is improving enough that some managers are becoming concerned about ways to keep their best people.

A recent report entitled “State of the Industry: Engagement & Wellness in 2015” by Virgin Pulse in partnership with Human Capital Media revealed some notable findings about the state of workforce engagement and wellness. The researchers conducted a survey of 1,400 Human Resources Management professionals to gain greater insight.

The findings were eye-opening.

  • The report found that managers and executives see employee engagement and wellness in starkly different ways. Executives feel that the two terms can be applied to the same workplace activities while managers are much more results oriented and break the link.
  • When asked, over 77% of firms said they were not considering shifting to private health insurance.
  • Twenty-six percent of firms are not even bothering to measure return on investment for their engagement and wellness programs. Those that do measure ROI, do so primarily based on reduction in insurance claims, while slightly over a quarter are measuring engagement goals.

Virgin Pulse CEO Chris Boyce commented on the report that due to the stress and competition of modern life, executives are continuing to make efforts to improve employee engagement and wellness. He noted “That has a major impact on how engaged and productive people are both on and off the job, so leading employers are taking steps to change that.”

In that way, employers can keep their best people, improve productivity and create a healthier work environment.

The End of AstraZeneca in Westborough

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The AstraZeneca plant in Westborough has announced it will shut its doors permanently by the end of 2015. This is the final step the company has taken to shut down the plant, having already decreased employee levels there from 800 to just 180.  More employees will be relieved by March, but others will remain employed until the company closes at the end of 2015.

The closing of the facility means the city of Westborough will lose its biggest taxpayer. The AstraZeneca plant pays the city an estimated $2 million in total; $360,000 in property taxes and $1,548,547 for equipment taxes. Residents and businesses in Westborough will begin to feel the pinch of the revenue loss in fiscal year 2017.

City officials hope to fill the vacancy quickly.   The building is 420,000 square feet and could be a great site for a wide spectrum of businesses.

The AstraZeneca plant processed the asthma treatment Pulmicort Respules, which will now be produced at the company’s locations in Sweden and Australia. A company representative stated the move is to attain “increased efficiencies in our global supply chain.”

AstraZeneca will continue to house its research-and-development operations in Massachusetts, with facilities in both Waltham and Cambridge.

Medical Device Manufacturer Moves to Worcester

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Cogmedix, a wholly owned subsidiary of Westborough-based Coghlin Companies Inc., recently announced the relocation of its world headquarters to 17 Briden Street in Worcester.  The medical device engineering and manufacturing services provider has become quite a success story in an increasingly important sector of the Commonwealth’s economy.

Chris Coghlin, President and CEO of the Coghlin Companies, stated “We are very excited about the trajectory of Cogmedix and the recent relocation, renovation and expansion of this world-class facility. For more than 100 years, our family has shared a deep-rooted passion for the economic success of Worcester and its surrounding communities, and we look forward to adding many new jobs in the greater Worcester area for years to come. The proximity of this facility lends itself well to attract highly skilled technicians as well as engineering and supply chain personnel as our growth continues into 2015 and beyond.”

Matt Giza, Vice President and General Manager of Cogmedix, said, “This move was made necessary by our steady pattern of growth. We really needed the additional space and these newly outfitted facilities are more than twice the size of our former location. This expansion will allow us to increase capacity to accommodate the needs of our customers, both existing and new, as well as provide improved inventory and supply chain management operations.”

Addressing Cogmedix’ growing niche in manufacturing finished laser and optically-based medical devices, Giza noted that upgrades included the installation of five purpose-built, independently climate-controlled, laser-safe test labs. Amenities include new cafeteria spaces, modern conference rooms, and a new Customer Convenience Center featuring fully equipped workspaces exclusively for visiting clients to enable a more intimate and efficient product launch experience with total transparency.

In addition to expanded production capacity and other benefits made possible by the much larger facility, the address itself has significant advantages. “Our new location,” Giza explained, “is at the junction of Interstate I-190 and I-290, providing quick and easy access to the entire region’s transportation infrastructure, including major airports in Boston, Worcester, Providence, and Hartford. We are also only about a mile from Worcester’s Union Station. All of this makes it possible for our visiting clients to arrive by air or rail and be hard at work in their own dedicated spaces in about an hour or less.

“We also couldn’t help but take notice of the rapidly growing biotech and biomed industry presence in the neighborhood,” said Giza. “Both regionally and nationally, Worcester has become well-known as a home for these cutting-edge industries, and Cogmedix is now located right in the heart of it all. We are immediately adjacent to WPI’s Gateway Park, Massachusetts Biomedical Initiatives (MBI), as well as multiple life science companies in the immediate vicinity, something that will surely add to the atmosphere of innovation and create real opportunities for meaningful collaboration.”

 

Harvard Pilgrim Acquires TrestleTree

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Wellesley, MA–based Harvard Pilgrim Health Care announced Friday that it has purchased Arkansas-based TrestleTree, Inc., provider of lifestyle health behavior change coaching. Harvard Pilgrim’s interest in TrestleTree developed because of their software, which supports and monitors patient progress in such programs as smoking cessation, health-risk assessment, weight and stress management, exercise monitoring; it also analyzes gaps in care.

“TrestleTree’s approach has achieved measurable and sustainable change for employees and their families, regardless of motivation level or severity of condition that has resulted in lower healthcare costs for employers,” a Harvard Pilgrim spokesperson said.

“We are thrilled to offer our employers TrestleTree’s proven methods for health transformation, ” Deb Hodges, Health Plans, Inc. president, said in the statement. “This acquisition complements our existing integrated care management and third-party administration services, enabling us to offer higher-level risk management and cost savings for employers.”

Shire Moving Headquarters to Lexington

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Pharmaceutical company Shire, PLC says its plans to make Lexington, Massachusetts its U.S. operational headquarters and will begin the transfer of more than 500 jobs there from its Chesterbrook, Pennsylvania, site.

The drugmaker is headquartered on the British island of Jersey and currently has about 5,000 employees around the world, including 1,300 in Lexington and about 970 in Chesterbrook.

Shire said Wednesday that the transition is part of a larger effort to increase efficiency and streamline its business globally through two principal locations – Massachusetts and Switzerland – with support from a number of regional and country-based offices around the world.

According to company representatives, condensing operations into two principle locations will save $25 million annually and is expected to strengthen collaboration and research. Shire plans to move the employees in several phases, beginning in the first quarter of 2015 and projecting completion by the first quarter of 2016. Employees who are directly impacted but do not relocate will be offered severance, outplacement service and other employee assistance.

James Bowling, interim chief financial officer, will leave the company in February and Jeff Poulton, its head of investor relations, will assume the role of interim CFO in January.

Shares of Shire traded in the U.S. slipped $1.22 to $208.78 in afternoon trading, in line with broader market activity.

UMMS Receives Grant of $7.5M to Fight Ebola

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In an effort to help fight the spread of Ebola, The University of Massachusetts Medical School (UMMS) announced last Thursday that it received an award of $7.5 million to provide much needed resources to fight Ebola in Liberia. The generous endowment will help provide immediate assistance to the West African country by supplying disaster relief and management teams, disease specialists and physicians.

UMMS currently has existing programs that provide training, education and medical supplies to Liberia. With this new grant, it will expand and help to further the institutions objectives and ongoing efforts for much needed health care services for Liberian citizens. Since the crisis began, UMMS and their clinical partners UMass Memorial Health Care, have managed to send two shipments to West Africa of personal protection equipment that they managed to collect in response to this serious outbreak.

Faculty members of UMMS applied for this grant through the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation who had already donated $100 million to the Tackle Ebola non-profit campaign recently. The funding is desperately needed and will provide for proper training, larger facilities and medical personnel that can respond adequately to this epidemic. The relief efforts will be directed and overseen by associate professor of pediatrics, Dr. Patricia McQuilkin, and Dr. Michelle Niescierenko, an emergency pediatrician and a director at Boston Children’s Hospital for the Global Health Program.

Through a collaboration of efforts from institutions like UMMS, non-governmental organizations and other partnerships, the resources needed to combat Ebola can continue to be supplied to this economically disadvantaged country. With the virus reaching over 4,900 deaths and an anticipated 20,000 reported cases by November, according to the World Health Organization, the disaster relief funding comes at a much needed and crucial time.

Are Massachusetts’ Medical Records Good Enough to Help Fight Ebola?

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Electronic medical records are meant to be helpful for all medical professionals. However, if we look at the case of the first person to die from Ebola in America, some of these records are clearly not up to snuff . When Thomas Eric Duncan went into the hospital complaining of not feeling well, he noted that he had been to West Africa. Hospital staff did not blink an eye, and his medical records did not flag him as a health risk. This incident illustrates the point that a gap in the system exists, and that this must be addressed in all medical facilities across the state and the nation.

When medical professionals are accessing electronic medical records, they need to be presented with system alerts that will tell them what the best protocol dictates. If you put a dangerous travel location into the system, it should warn you of imminent danger. People who have traveled to Africa during the Ebola epidemic should be flagged immediately, and the medical system should be prepared to warn doctors and nurses of travel advisories.

These advisories should be no different than the travel advisories issued by the State Department. These records can help doctors and nurses treat people more quickly, but they are useless if they are not noted properly. Perhaps, if Thomas Eric Duncan had gone to another hospital, it is possible that properly notated medical records could have saved his life. Also, it is possible that the system could have saved people who might have been exposed inside the hospital.

Electronic medical records in Massachusetts are very clever, but they are not quite strong enough to protect all doctors, nurses and patients. These medical record systems need to be fitted with travel advisories and other alerts that will warn medical professionals of a potential threat. This could save further lives and prevent an epidemic here in America.