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Coakley Names Local Health Advocate to Task ForceStaff reports - January 16, 2008
 | | Charles 'Chip' Joffe-Halpern [file] |
NORTH ADAMS - A local health advocate has been named an state task force to review community benefit guidelines for hospitals.
Charles "Chip" Joffe-Halpern, executive director of Ecu-Health Care Inc., was one of 12 people named to the panel by state Attorney General Martha Coakley on Wednesday.
The panel was established by the North Adams native to review her office's Community Benefits Program and to determine what, if any, changes should be made to the program for nonprofit health care institutions.
"The new health-reform law presents a unique opportunity to evaluate how our nonprofit heath care institutions are responding to the needs of the underserved," said Coakley. "Our office has asked key stakeholders and public health experts from across the commonwealth to help us take a fresh look at the Community Benefits Program and update it to meet our current needs."
The task force, which held its first meeting Tuesday, will discuss whether to develop strategies for advancing statewide priorities as well as develop recommendations for streamlining reporting requirements for participating health-care institutions.
Joffe-Halpern served one year on Commonwealth Health Insurance Connector Authority, which oversaw the implementation of the state's landmark health reform law that requires all residents be covered by health insurance.
He has been at the helm of Ecu-Health, a nonprofit agency that helps people find affordable health care, since its inception in 1995.
The Community Benefits Program, first established by the attorney general's office in 1994, provides a framework for health-care institutions to develop and implement programs to address a wide variety of public health issues in the communities they serve. Under the program guidelines, nonprofit acute care hospitals and HMOs submit annual reports to the attorney general detailing their community benefit efforts.
Serving with Joffe-Halpern are:
- Barbara Anthony, executive director of Health Law Advocates
- Lynn Nicholas, president and CEO of the Massachusetts Hospital Association
- Dr. Mary Lou Buyse, president and CEO of the Massachusetts Association of Health Plans
- Zoila Torres-Feldman, former CEO of Great Brook Valley Health Center
- Lori Berry, executive director of the Lynn Community Health Center
- Dr. Lauren Smith, medical director of the state Department of Public Health
- Dr. Brian Gibbs, director of the Program to Eliminate Health Disparities, Harvard School of Public Health
- Ellen Banach, senior vice president of Strategic Services, Southcoast Hospital Group
- Matthew Fishman, vice president of Community Health, Partners Health Care
- Grace Moreno, deputy director of Health Care for All
- John Erwin, executive director of the Conference of Boston Teaching Hospitals
The task force will be chaired by Coakley with assistance from Assistant Attorneys General David Spackman, chief of the NonProfit Organizations/Public Charities Division, and Quentin Palfrey, chief of the Health Care Division, and Lois Johnson of the Health Care Division and health policy analyst Kimberly Henry. |
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