Attorney General Martha Coakley has set up a new Advisory Task Force on Community Benefits to review the AG Community Benefits Program. The task force held its first meeting yesterday and will consider ways to advance issues such as racial and ethnic health disparities and recommendations to streamline reporting requirements.
“The new health reform law presents a unique opportunity to evaluate how our non-profit heath care institutions are responding to the needs of the underserved,” said Coakley. “Our Office has asked key stakeholders and public health experts from across the Commonwealth to help us take a fresh look at the Community Benefits Program and update it to meet our current needs.”
Community Benefits was created by AG Scott Harshbarger in 1994, and provides a framework for health care institutions to develop and implement programs to address public health issues in communities they serve. Non-profit acute care hospitals and HMOs submit annual reports to the Attorney General detailing their community benefit efforts.
Twelve people have been named as members of the Advisory Task Force:
· Charles (“Chip”) Joffe-Halpern – President, Ecu-Health Care
· Barbara Anthony – Executive Director, Health Law Advocates
· Lynn Nicholas – President/CEO, Massachusetts Hospital Association
· Dr. Mary Lou Buyse – President/CEO, Massachusetts Association of Health Plans
· Zoila Torres-Feldman – Former CEO, Great Brook Valley Health Center
· Lori Berry – Executive Director, Lynn Community Health Center
· Dr. Lauren Smith – Medical Director, Department of Public Health
· Dr. Brian Gibbs – Director, Program to Eliminate Health Disparities, Harvard School of Public Health
· Ellen Banach – Senior Vice President of Strategic Services, Southcoast Hospital Group
· Matthew Fishman – Vice President of Community Health, Partners Health Care
· Grace Moreno – Deputy Director, Health Care for All
· John Erwin- Executive Director, Conference of Boston Teaching Hospitals
The task force is chaired by Coakley with support from Assistant AGs David Spackman, Chief of the Non-Profit Organizations/Public Charities Division and Quentin Palfrey, Chief of the Health Care Division, Lois Johnson, of the Health Care Division, and Health Policy Analyst Kimberly Henry.
Click here for the current AG Community Benefits website.
I can understand the AG’s desire to draw on the experience and wisdom/leadership from the health care universe, as often happens in the public policy dialogue, the same people are at the table.
It would be interesting to profile the participants named to thetaskforce. It’s frustrating that there aren’t more meaningful opportunities for young, lower-income, or rural folks to bring their voices and aspirations for society into these dialogues. We might not own a suit, but we are stakeholders in the future of the Commonwealth and want to be at the table.