Monthly Archives: April 2010

Health Care Quality – the next frontier

Posted on April 30, 2010 by

The Greater Boston Aligning Forces for Quality (GBAF4Q) alliance announced this week that is has been selected by The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to participate in Aligning Forces for Quality (AF4Q), an unprecedented effort to lift the quality of health … Continue reading →

Posted in Health Care Quality | 2 Comments

Churn Churn Churn (to everything there is coverage)

Posted on April 30, 2010 by

Earlier this week, the Massachusetts Medicaid Policy Institute released a superb report, “Enrollment and Disenrollment in MassHealth and Commonwealth Care.” Bob Seifert, from the UMass Center for Health Law and Economics is the lead author. Bob’s Commonhealth blog post does … Continue reading →

Posted in MA Health Reform, MassHealth/Medicaid | 1 Comment

House Approves Asthma Global Payment Pilot

Posted on April 29, 2010 by

Asthma is the leading cause of emergency room visits and hospitalizations for children covered by Medicaid. The majority of these are preventable and now we are one step closer to a substantial reduction in these incidents. On Tuesday the House … Continue reading →

Posted in Public Health | 3 Comments

The Health Case For Why We Should Maintain The Sales Tax on Alcohol

Posted on April 27, 2010 by

The Campaign for Addiction Prevention, Treatment, and Recovery, a broad coalition of organizations working on substance abuse and related issues, is working hard to urge House members to vote no today on amendment 43, which would repeal last year’s statute … Continue reading →

Posted in budget, Public Health, Revenue | 2 Comments

House Budget Debate – Day 1 “…not terribly pretty”

Posted on April 26, 2010 by

Around 7:30PM on Monday the House began their week of budget debate. Chairman Murphy began by giving an overview of the budget world. The good news, the nation is on the road to recovery. The bad news, unemployment in the … Continue reading →

Posted in budget | Leave a comment

Also Pending: S.810 – A Step Forward for Health Equity

Posted on April 26, 2010 by

Massachusetts has an important opportunity to advance health equity through legislation pending in the Health Care Financing Committee. Filed by Senator Fargo and Representative Rushing, S. 810 (An Act to Eliminate Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities), establishes a permanent Executive … Continue reading →

Posted in Health Disparities | Leave a comment

Data Mining Ban Bill Pending

Posted on April 26, 2010 by

Massachusetts should ban prescription drug data mining. This week, the Joint Committee on Health Care Financing has the opportunity to get us one step closer to that ban. S. 17/H. 109 will prevent pharmaceutical companies from buying doctors’ prescribing records … Continue reading →

Posted in Prescription Drug Reform | 3 Comments

Little Kids, Big Problems, A Way to Help

Posted on April 26, 2010 by

Unfortunately, a tight budget has become par for the course in recent years. This week, as part of the annual rite of spring that is the House Budget Debate, legislators will have to make difficult decisions about what and how … Continue reading →

Posted in Children's Mental Health | Leave a comment

Not Just Budget: Important Health Reform Bills Pending

Posted on April 26, 2010 by

In the past four years, health reform has expanded health care access to over 400,000 Massachusetts residents. At 97.4%, Massachusetts has the highest rate of insurance coverage in the nation. With increased access to health insurance, health outcomes are beginning … Continue reading →

Posted in MA Health Reform | 1 Comment

Hey HCFA – How Do We Pay For Your Amendments? Our Revenue Agenda

Posted on April 25, 2010 by

In our last blog post, we detailed a number of the budget amendments HCFA supports. Most of the amendments would add spending to the budget. We also support a number of proposals that would add spending that are not being … Continue reading →

Posted in budget | 1 Comment