Hospital execs snub MA governor investigating high healthcare costs

A lot of the so-called health care reform bills being conferenced are modeled after the Massachusetts plan designed by Mitt Romney. It is unaffordable and mandated. I have seen the future of "working with" private hospitals and insurance company executives and it's "We don't give a $#!& what you think, peasants."


Executives snub hearing on rising health care costs

By Kay Lazar, Globe Staff | January 8, 2010

With rising health care costs burdening the country, Governor Deval Patrick’s attempt to find out what can be done about them is being met with resounding silence from many of the state’s health care executives.

Leaders of some of the state’s largest hospitals failed to show up at a public hearing yesterday to answer regulators’ questions about what is driving up costs. A month earlier, officials of the state’s major insurance companies testified at an earlier set of hearings, but refused to answer many key questions.

The hearings on hospital costs, which conclude Tuesday, are part of a three-month probe by the Patrick administration that started as an investigation into the reasons for the disproportionately high health insurance rates paid by small businesses, but has since mushroomed into a larger, systemwide inquiry.

Leaders from just two of the 17 hospitals or hospital networks invited to testify yesterday appeared at the hearing: Cambridge Health Alliance and Emerson Hospital in Concord.

From Boston Globe

Can they be subpoena'd?