Hospitals shun effort to cut insurance costs (Boston Herald)

[Guest guest]

No Bay State hospitals joined a voluntary effort to help defray the cost of

health care for small businesses last year - including the mammoth chain

Partners HealthCare, which pledged $40 million - according to a report released

by the Division of Insurance.

The report from Insurance Commissioner ph to the Legislature on Dec.

31 was supposed to detail hospital rebates given to insurers to lower

health-care costs for small businesses, as required under a highly touted

health-care cost containment bill. Instead, it lists all of the hospitals in the

Bay State with a column of zeros next to their names. That includes Partners

HealthCare, which has pushed the deadline for its pledge of $40 million back to

the end of this year, despite posting $195 million in annual profits.

" The math was so simple even I could do it, " quipped, adding that the

program was optional and...

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