This report finds that Massachusetts' enhanced eligibility verification has allowed MassHealth, the Commonwealth’s Medicaid program, to save significant resources that could be redirected to the care of truly needy Medicaid recipients.

Preliminary results suggest that a new program that gives opioid overdose patients at Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital-Plymouth (BID-Plymouth) multiple opportunities to access detox programs, psychological counseling, anti-abuse drugs and other services is proving effective at reducing recidivism and returning opioid users to more productive lives.

This paper will discuss the importance of secure medical records in health information exchanges (HIEs), the general history of EHRs in the US and in Massachusetts particularly, the history of privacy rights in the medical field, and finally efforts being taken to ensure more protected and private EHRs.

This paper describes Massachusetts' existing medical liability system, including how it has failed to achieve its social objectives, the impact of the system on health care costs, and recent efforts towards reform. It presents policy options for medical liability reform. It examines both traditional and nontraditional avenues of reform along with strategies for advancing medical liability reform in Massachusetts.

This report is the final report in a series of four. Earlier reports in this series evaluated access to health insurance and health care, equitable and sustainable financing, and administrative efficiency. The focus of this report will be on cost-effective quality, and the analysis will be organized by the four "Scorecard Metric,' presented in Figure 1. 

The focus of this report is on the reduction of barriers to access.

The Middle Cities Initiative seeks to help the Commonwealth's older cities, which face economic, demographic, and political challenges. These challenges cover a wide range of issues—entrenched political cultures, significant infrastructure costs, underperforming schools, struggling retail and manufacturing sectors, crime, and poorly targeted state programs. The Initiative's goal is to develop and disseminate concrete policies to help the Middle Cities grow.

The Massachusetts Estuaries Project, through the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth School of Marine Science and Technology (SMAST), supports the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) in the development and implementation of policies to protect nitrogen-sensitive coastal embayments. The Project collects data and develops models to manage and restore the 89 embayment systems that comprise the coastline of southeastern Massachusetts. The Project encompasses new technologies, regulatory approaches and funding mechanisms to reduce the costs of conducting estuarine restoration.

Over the course of the past decade, thousands of organizations have used business process redesign and information technology to get to know their customers well, and they have used that information to do a better job of meeting their customers’ needs. Five years ago, anyone who had a checking account, a mortgage, an auto loan, and a credit card with the same financial institution might as well have been dealing with four different companies. Today, more often than not, that individual gets one statement each month that consolidates his or her entire relationship with that financial institution. The bank knows the extent of its relationship with each customer, and its customers can manage their accounts and loans in a unified, coordinated manner.