Gary Lapidas, vice president for payor relations and affiliated hospitals at University of Massachusetts Memorial Health Care in Worcester, said that the organization has half as much financial risk as it did three years ago. We need to do even better next year. Stuart Altman, a Brandeis University health care economist and cochairman of the state's health care task force, said that the current shift was inevitable, even though Massachusetts HMOs already pay higher rates than health plans nationally, partly because residents flock to expensive teaching hospitals. Given the cost structure here and the kind of care we seem to want, no one was in good shape financially. The HMOs weren't and the hospitals weren't.
Partners is just the leading edge.
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