Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey.
Methuen-based Holy Family Hospital, including Holy Family Hospital at Merrimack Valley, Haverhill, provided an estimated more than $5.8 million in community benefits last fiscal year, according to reports published Tuesday by Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey’s office.
The hospital’s reported total community benefit expenditures of $5,868,265 in fiscal year 2014, including free or discounted care provided directly to patients, was among more than $631 million in benefits provided statewide by Massachusetts nonprofit and for-profit hospitals. Holy Family also reported expenditures of $209,304 in community service programs. These include an organized “Diabetes Alert Day,” which served 800 people at its Haverhill and Methuen facilities; a “Healthy Kids Day,” held at Greater Haverhill YMCA; and “thousands of participants” served through sponsorships of farmer’s markets including those in Haverhill, held on Bailey Boulevard and at the Merrimack Valley hospital grounds. The hospital’s listed accomplishments and priorities include diabetes awareness, overweight and obesity as well as cancer education, awareness and early detection programs.
“Massachusetts hospitals continue to display their commitment to serving the needs of their communities,” Healey said. “These programs are important resources to help identify and address the unmet needs of underserved and at-risk populations.”
According to Holy Family Hospital’s community benefits mission statement, “Holy Family Hospital is committed to: improving the overall health status of people in our community; providing accessible, high quality care and services to all those in our community, regardless of their ability to pay; working in collaboration with staff, providers and community representatives to improve the area’s health status; identifying and prioritizing unmet needs and selecting those that can most effectively be addressed with available resources; contributing to the well-being of our community through outreach efforts including, but not limited to, reducing barriers to accessing health care, preventative health education, screenings, and wellness programs; and regularly evaluating our community benefits program.”
Each hospital that filed a report this year addressed one or more of the four statewide health priorities identified in the AG’s Community Benefits Guidelines. Those statewide priorities include: supporting health care reform, improving chronic disease management in disadvantaged populations, reducing health disparities, and promoting wellness of vulnerable populations.
“The Community Benefits Program supports a key component of the mission of hospitals and health maintenance organizations (HMOs), which are both critical to the delivery of health care in communities across the state,” according to a statement. “AG Healey’s Community Benefits Guidelines encourage hospitals and HMOs to build upon their commitment to address unmet community health needs by formalizing their approach to planning for annual benefits, collaborating with community representatives in developing programs, and filing annual reports with the attorney general’s office on their efforts.”
You really have to read between the lines on this one. Why is the attorney general reporting on a private corporation providing free care? “Underserved and at-risk populations” “supporting healthcare reform”….
Don’t you just love the liberal double speak and code words?
Isn’t it MANDATORY every Massachusetts resident have health insurance? So giving free healthcare to low income residents in this state via MassHealth isn’t enough? But this news isn’t about Massachusetts residents.
Hard working families are paying through the nose with sky high insurance rates and insane deductibles and here we learn area hospitals and the state are providing millions of dollars in healthcare benefits to illegal criminal trespassers from other countries.
The sanctuary state known as Massachusetts (read laws don’t matter here), that has a governing legislative body renowned for political corruption, is also one of the highest in the nation in terms of healthcare costs in the country.
This isn’t just about Massachusetts corruption. This is a cute little move the feds have concocted to get around that sticky little subject of providing healthcare to illegals in this country. One of the main issues during the whole healthcare debate was hospitals getting stuck with having to cover the cost of treatment when people from other countries with no insurance walk into emergency rooms seeking treatment. Congressman Joe Wilson was rebuked by Congress for calling Obama a liar when Obama said the ACA would not provide healthcare to illegals. Yet here it is!!! The Attorney General of Massachusetts publicly boasting about the State of Massachusetts reimbursing two area hospitals for doing just that.