Researchers who looked at data from Massachusetts Planned Parenthood clinics from 2018 through October, 2022 found a small but significant increase in the number of people coming into Massachusetts for abortions following the Supreme Court Dobbs decision in June, 2022, even though we don't border any states where abortion is now banned.
Gov. Healey announced today that that Massachusetts health-care providers have started stockpiling mifepristone in advance of potential judicial action to ban its sale, despite 20 years of use showing its safer than many other drugs, including Viagra, but nobody is talking about denying men a right to erections. Read more.
As expected, a federal judge in Texas overturned FDA approval of mifepristone. Gov. Maura Healey said tonight it will remain available in Massachusetts: Read more.
Ryan Grannan-Doll reports:
Just tried to pickup meds at CVS in Newtonville. Pharmacist told me CVS computer network is down NATIONWIDE. No Rx filling or selling. No timeline for fix.
GBH reports the East Boston Neighborhood Health Center has set up a patient advocate office in response to allegations of poor medical treatment at the facility.
MIT News reports on efforts at the Institute to study the human microbiome - all the zillions of microorganisms that cohabit in your body - to see if there are ways to improve human health. One example: Microorganisms living in the digestive tract have been linked to several diseases, including Type 2 diabetes, several cancers and Alzheimer's.
WBUR reports on efforts by Black residents at Mass. General, Brigham and Women's and Boston Medical Center to boost both minority employment and do more about health disparities between white and minority patients.
As he has done for several days now, Gov. Baker used part of his daily press conference today to urge people with non-Covid-19 health issues to call their doctors or 911. But this time, he was joined by executives at three hospitals, who reported many people are trying to wait out symptoms at home, which means they eventually come into the hospital far sicker - and sometimes beyond help. Read more.
WBUR reports on Mass. General's plans, which includes two new 12-story buildings and 450 single-patient rooms.
The Globe reports Brigham and Women's Hospital has offered voluntary buyouts to 1,600 workers.
Separately, the hospital and parent Partners Healthcare have agreed to pay the federal government $10 million to resolve fraud allegations involving "manipulated and falsified information" used by three Brigham doctors to obtain federal stem-cell research grants.
A few days after Partners HealthCare announced plans to subsume Mass. Eye and Ear, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and the Lahey Clinic are announcing plans to merge, the Boston Business Journal reports.
The cancer center reports it now has less than a day's worth of O-negative blood and is looking for folks with that type who could make a donation.
Seems Steward Health Care didn't like what it was hearing about a Globe story coming out this Sunday focusing on one family's struggles with a mentally ill member who received care at several Steward facilities so it sued the Globe and the patient to try to get an advance look at the article and release the patient's medical records.
Steward lost and now it's gotten lots of people interested in just what the story will say.
Hopkinton's only drugstore is suing CVS, alleging the national pharmacy giant is trying to muscle into the town by cutting off a key part of its business.
In a lawsuit filed this week in US District Court, Hopkinton Drug alleges the CVS wing that administers pharmacy benefits for many employers is refusing to do any more business with the store as part of an "unlawful civil conspiracy" with the CVS wing that runs retail outlets, in an attempt to break into the Hopkinton pharmacy market.
Paul Levy, who used to battle the Mass. General/Brigham and Women's conglomeration when he was in charge at Beth Israel, continues the fight and writes that a posting for a vice president's job shows the behemoth shows little signs of slowing down what he says are its efforts to keep running the health-care show around here.
Louis Gudema posts a copy of a letter to the CEO of Harvard Pilgrim, which is refusing to pay more than half the cost of an emergency eye procedure even though an eye specialist at Harvard Vanguard told him he needed to get to Mass. Eye and Ear right away or risk having his retina detach. Seems Harvard Pilgrim doesn't agree it was an emergency, and it doesn't pay for "routine" care at the infirmary.
Apparently, although I was told specifically to go to Mass Eye and Ear’s emergency room by Harvard Vanguard, I was expected to check with Harvard Pilgrim at 2AM on a Sunday morning to see what was and was not covered there. Even if I had tried check with Harvard Pilgrim at 2AM on a Sunday, your website does not list a weekend or emergency number. How could I have gotten an approval?
Brian Benoit, 40, of South Boston, faces arraignment in Suffolk Superior Court on charges he stole the contents of 106 vials and syringes loaded with painkillers and sedatives in late summer, 2011, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office reports.
Michael Rosen points us to this lawsuit (via this law firm) by a South Shore dental practice against a dentist who left and set up his own practice nearby.
CommonHealth takes a look at the state's latest health-insurance coverage numbers - and whether the state could do even more to ensure universal coverage.
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