PioneerHealth explores market-based reforms to rein in the cost and improve the quality of care in Massachusetts. Our healthcare research is focused on state and federal health care reform, Medicaid, and cost containment.

With so many deaths occurring at long-term care facilities, in Massachusetts and other states, Pioneer has added a new COVID-19 tracker, with data from the state’s weekly Public Health Report. This data includes any nursing home, rehabilitation center or other long-term care facility with 2+ known COVID-19 cases and facility-reported deaths. This tracker includes the number of licensed beds, ranges of case numbers, deaths, and deaths per bed for 320 facilities.  Pioneer will update the tracker weekly.

PIONEER HEALTH POLICY AREAS

Telehealth Progress Slowed in 2023

A new report by Cicero Institute, Pioneer Institute, and Reason Foundation reveals worrying stagnation in state-level telehealth expansion efforts in 2023, with only a few exceptions. Progress made during the pandemic is being lost even as provider shortages worsen, raising concerns about patients’ access to care.

As COVID-19 Emergencies Ease, Some Progress on Telehealth Rules

A new report from Reason Foundation, Cicero Institute and Pioneer Institute rates every state’s telehealth policy for patient access and ease of providing virtual care. The report highlights telehealth policy best practices for states.

Study: Massachusetts Should Retain Additional Healthcare System Flexibility Granted During Pandemic

Massachusetts’ emergency declaration for COVID-19 ends on June 15, and with it some enhanced flexibility that has been allowed in the healthcare system.  Some of the added flexibility highlighted barriers that make the system more expensive, harder to access and less patient-centered, and the Commonwealth should consider permanently removing these barriers, according to a new study published by Pioneer Institute.

Get Updates on our Healthcare Research!

With Congress and the Trump Administration poised to repeal the Affordable Care Act, many observers are asking what the replacement plan looks like.  A new book, U-Turn: America’s Return to State Healthcare Solutions, proposes that the states take the lead in healthcare reform, as Massachusetts did in 2006, and that Washington facilitate the transition, rather than try to dictate every move.