Worcester Business Journal

FOCUS: Banking & Finance Do you regret having bought that business? 24 Buyers of Central Mass. firms say they have no remorse, but they might have done things differently. Central Mass. banks push, shove and staff up to handle more commercial loans. WBJ >> To Subscribe Q&A with Barry Clapp of Centage Corp., Natick Shop Talk 8 Central Massachusetts' Source for Business News February 2, 2015 Volume 26 Number 3 www.wbjournal.com $2.00 12 Relative price for hospitals Heywood Hospital in Gardner had the lowest composite relative price in 2012 among the 11 acute-care hospitals in Central Massachusetts. The highest in the Bay State? Children's Hospital in Boston (95). NOTE: Based on a scale of 1 to 100. * - now part of Steward Health Care Source: Mass. Center for Health Information and Analysis (CHIA) With payments, not all hospitals are equal Why? Part of the answer lies in agreements with insurers H ealth care is a complicated busi- ness on all levels, and one of the most confounding aspects of hospital operations is how they're paid. Relying on two major sources for rev- enue — the government and commercial insurance companies — administrators at acute-care hospital realize they're playing by certain rules that don't always add up. For instance, hospitals lose money on patients who don't have health insur- ance, despite the existence of a govern- ment safety net that's supposed to help defray those costs. And when it comes to payments from commercial insurers, hospitals aren't on equal footing. This fact brought Saint Vincent Hospital in Worcester and MetroWest Medical Center in Framingham down to the wire in negotiating a new contract with Tufts Health Plan in December. As the month wound down, it was beginning to look as if patients insured BY EMILY MICUCCI Worcester Business Journal Staff Writer >> Continued on Page 10 Building a 'college city' Expansion projects at Worcester schools seen as benefiting city's neighborhoods too BY SAM BONACCI Worcester Business Journal Staff Writer >> Continued on Page 10 A mid a growing need for more space and facili- ties, Worcester's colleges have undertaken multi-million-dollar projects that are lifting up individual neighborhoods in the city. In Main South, Clark University is about to embark on its $23.8 million Alumni and Student Engagement Center as the school continues to expand its footprint into the sur- rounding neighborhood. Downtown, Quinsigamond Community College (QCC) has taken up residence in the former Telegram & Gazette building, bringing students and administrators downtown. Heywood Hospital Gardner 22 Nashoba Valley Medical Center * Ayer 34 Athol Memorial Hospital Athol 35 MetroWest Medical Center Framingham, Natick 41 Clinton Hospital Clinton 42 Harrington Memorial Hospital Southbridge 45 Milford Regional Medical Center Milford 46 Marlborough Hospital Marlborough 47 HealthAlliance Hospital Leominster 51 Saint Vincent Hospital Worcester 56 UMass Memorial Medical Center Worcester 79 Composite Hospital City or Town Relative Price An artist's rendering of Clark University 's Alumni and Student Engagement Center, scheduled to be completed in the summer of 2016. R E N D E R I N G / C O U R T E S Y

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