Kate at Brigham

My wife is an award-winning neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) nurse at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts.¹ She’s a pain in my ass — I want to make that clear from the outset — but I know that she’s a pain in my ass because she cares. I’d imagine that she shares the same energy with her patients and their parents.

Kate’s been at Brigham and Women’s Hospital for about twenty years or more now; she started there as a travel nurse — that’s when we first met — and she was good enough to switch to a permanent position at the hospital.

For Kate, Brigham and Women’s Hospital is more than a place of employment. Kate gave birth to four of our children there. I was right there beside her for each of her pregnancies and deliveries.

Brigham and Women’s Hospital is a special place. When I was a child, I remember going there when the rounded Brutalist buildings were exposed to the exterior, because they were the buildings’ exteriors. If you’re in the modern-day lobby and look up, you’ll still see parts of the older buildings’ original architecture inside the new addition. As an aside, the building looked like something out of Star Trek; it was memorable to many older Bostonians. Also, I love architectural history because it relates so closely to people.

The nurses of Brigham and Women’s Hospital went on strike this morning; they’re part of the Massachusetts Nurses Association (MNA).² The MNA is a large union. I have many issues with unions, especially public unions, but I feel as though every American should have the right to join and leave unions as they see fit.

Why Staffing Matters

I’ve been a supporter of the MNA because I support my wife. When the MNA lobbied for a Yes vote on the 2018 Massachusetts ballot initiative called the “Nurse-Patient Assignment Limits Initiative,” I supported the measure. I went over to the MNA’s headquarters in Canton, Massachusetts, grabbed some yard signs, and dug them into the lawns of people who wanted one.

My wife and I had just lost our infant son to a sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) event in 2017. The nurses at UH Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital were amazing with our son. I’ll never forget all the work they did for him and us as grieving parents.

When a patient’s care is in question — it’s been in question across Massachusetts for quite some time — the nurse-to-patient staffing ratio is critical to competent care.³

Question 1’s Money

Question 1 was roundly defeated that year. I thought the ballot measure would be decided by a close vote, but more than 70% of voters who marked “yes” or “no” voted against the measure. The lopsided result shocked me because it didn’t seem plausible.⁴

The public summary of Question 1 misses the shape of the fight. The Massachusetts Office of Campaign and Political Finance (OCPF) reported that the Committee to Ensure Safe Patient Care, the Yes committee, raised and spent $12,044,919, while the Coalition to Protect Patient Safety, the No committee, raised $24,808,566 and spent $24,733,966. The No committee raised and spent more than twice as much as the Yes committee.⁵

The hospital side of the ballot question was not a broad collection of small donors meeting the nurses in a fair fight. The Massachusetts Health & Hospital Association (MHA) supplied $24,573,500 to the No committee, which was 99.05% of its receipts and 99.35% of its expenditures. MHA alone spent more than twice the Yes committee’s entire budget to defeat nurse-patient limits.

That ballot fight was a preliminary look into the politics of Massachusetts health care.

The Massachusetts Health & Hospital Association (MHA) was founded in 1936, and it serves as the trade association and lobbying voice for the hospitals and health systems that dominate care in the Commonwealth. When MHA spent dollars through the Coalition to Protect Patient Safety, it was not some detached civic group warning voters about policy risk. The hospital industry itself was fighting the nurses who deliver bedside care through a nominally independent campaign committee that needed an air of neutrality to veil its true base: the hospitals themselves.⁶

You’ve read that right. The fight was between nurses and hospitals. Those hospitals are behemoths; they can concentrate money in ways a bedside nurses’ union cannot match.

When a union as large as the MNA wins higher wages, nonunion hospitals cannot pretend that the wage floor does not exist; competing corporations still need to recruit and retain nurses in the same Massachusetts labor market.⁷

Beacon Hill’s Silence

The list of Massachusetts politicians who either publicly opposed Question 1, stayed publicly noncommittal, or never showed up in the public yes-or-no record was more surprising than I expected…⁸

Publicly Opposed / Announced No

• Charles “Charlie” Baker (R), Governor
• Ron Mariano (D), House Majority Leader

Publicly Noncommittal / Still Reviewing

• Robert “Bob” DeLeo (D), House Speaker
• Karen Spilka (D), Senate President

Reported No Public Position as of October 23, 2018

• Richard Neal (D-1), U.S. Representative
• William “Bill” Keating (D-9), U.S. Representative

No Located Public Yes or No Position

• Niki Tsongas (D-3), U.S. Representative
• Seth Moulton (D-6), U.S. Representative
• Karyn Polito (R), Lieutenant Governor
• Maura Healey (D), Attorney General

Names Behind Silence

Charlie Baker had served in Health and Human Services under Governor William “Bill” Weld, then ran Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care prior to becoming governor.⁹

Ron Mariano had watched Quincy lose its own acute-care hospital when Quincy Medical Center closed at the end of 2014. Steward Health Care had closed one of the strongest union hospitals in the state, one where the MNA had been involved since 1965. An old friend’s mother was a registered nurse at that hospital for decades; she’s an Irish immigrant who helped her husband support their three children, but her career ended when the hospital closed.¹⁰

Speaker Robert DeLeo had already lost Winthrop Hospital in 1992, where my aunt, Judith “Judy” Menz, and my mother, Virginia “Anne” Bowen, had worked for many years. In fact, I was a patient there too many times as a wild kid; the number of broken bones I’d endured is astounding. The MNA had once treated Bob as an ally on patient-safety legislation, so his non-participatory answer may have been felt as a stab in the back.¹¹

Karen Spilka publicly remained undecided, saying she was still reviewing the Health Policy Commission material and listening to stakeholders on both sides.

Boston Magazine had reported that Richard Neal and Bill Keating had not made their stances known after being asked to clarify.¹²

Karyn Polito had to stay quiet, even if she privately supported the ballot question, because she would’ve embarrassed Charlie Baker by taking an opposing view.

Niki Tsongas also kept her mouth shut. I’d bet she was lobbying for a medical building to be named after her visage, as her husband had previously been bestowed. Instead of the Tsongas Center at the University of Massachusetts at Lowell, I’d bet she was looking for the Niki NICU at Lowell General Hospital.

Seth Moulton was fomenting a wild bid for the presidency at the time, so he’d kept his mouth shut.¹³

Maura Healey, in her typical fashion, kept her mouth shut, but she may have been required to do so because of her position as attorney general, so I’ll give her the slightest bit of grace.

Steward Health Care

The issue gets much deeper.

Steward Health Care made the larger hospital-power argument impossible to ignore. Norwood Hospital has been empty for years while patients, nurses, and nearby communities have lived with the consequences. Beacon Hill’s eminent-domain push matters because it is belated proof that hospital closures are public failures, not private balance-sheet events, and Mass General Brigham’s fight with Brigham nurses belongs in that same frame.¹⁴

As we’ve learned, two powerful state representatives have lost community hospitals within their districts. Over the past few decades, the loss of community hospitals has accelerated at an alarming rate. The losses seem to center on community hospitals, with nurses and many other healthcare professionals at those hospitals being affiliated with unions.

Massachusetts Hospital Losses

Steward Health Care is the largest progenitor of this ill. The bankrupt for-profit hospital chain raided community hospitals across Massachusetts, and Beacon Hill is now advancing emergency legislation that would authorize the Division of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance (DCAMM) to take the Norwood Hospital property by eminent domain for public health. In my opinion, that is the government doing what it should do when a whole region has been left without acute and emergency care.

The hospital losses fall into different buckets.

Steward Health Care Hospital Closures and Failed Reopenings

• Quincy Medical Center, Quincy: Steward Health Care announced the closure of Quincy Medical Center on November 6, 2014, and the acute-care hospital closed at midnight on December 26, 2014, except for emergency care.
• Norwood Hospital, Norwood: Norwood Hospital closed after catastrophic flooding on June 28, 2020, and Steward Health Care’s failed rebuild ended on October 8, 2024, when Steward confirmed that Norwood Hospital would not reopen.
• New England Sinai Hospital, Stoughton: Steward Health Care announced on December 5, 2023 that it would close New England Sinai Hospital, a long-term acute-care and rehabilitation hospital, and the hospital closed by April 2, 2024.
• Carney Hospital, Dorchester: Steward Health Care announced on July 26, 2024 that it would close Carney Hospital, and the hospital closed on August 31, 2024, after the bankruptcy process failed to produce a qualified buyer.
• Nashoba Valley Medical Center, Ayer: Steward Health Care announced on July 26, 2024 that it would close Nashoba Valley Medical Center, and the hospital closed on August 31, 2024 after the bankruptcy process failed to produce a qualified buyer.¹⁵

Other Massachusetts Hospital Closures

• Winthrop Hospital, Winthrop: The hospital closed in 1992, and its successor, Winthrop Community Health Center, which used the same site, closed in 1999.
• North Adams Regional Hospital, North Adams: North Adams Regional Hospital announced its closure with three days’ notice on March 26, 2014, closed on March 28, 2014, and reopened under Berkshire Health Systems as a critical access hospital on March 28, 2024.
• Radius Specialty Hospital, Roxbury and Quincy: Radius Specialty Hospital told workers on September 23, 2014 that it would close its Roxbury and Quincy long-term acute-care facilities, and state records place the closure in October 2014.¹⁶

Hospital Losses Short of Full Closure

• Signature Healthcare Brockton Hospital, Brockton: Signature Healthcare Brockton Hospital lost hospital operations after a transformer room fire on February 7, 2023, and its prolonged shutdown belongs in the same political atmosphere, not to a permanent hospital closure.
• Holy Family Hospital at Methuen, maternity and neonatal services: The closure of Holy Family Hospital at Methuen’s maternity and neonatal services was a service-line loss, which matters because families can lose a hospital function before they lose the hospital building.¹⁷

Steward Health Care Hospitals Transferred After Bankruptcy

• Good Samaritan Medical Center, St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center, Morton Hospital, Saint Anne’s Hospital, Holy Family Hospital at Methuen, and Holy Family Hospital at Haverhill: These Steward Health Care hospitals transferred to new operators on October 1, 2024, placing them inside the Steward collapse even though the hospitals stayed open.¹⁸

When Winthrop Hospital finally closed, I was honestly shocked. I had never heard of a hospital closing in Massachusetts; it’s the center of the world’s health care system. The history of medical innovations throughout the Commonwealth has been well documented over centuries. When I began to hear rumblings of a closure at Milton Hospital in 2003 — I worked in a Lower Mills real estate office at the time — I was again shocked, but it was eventually saved by Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, now Beth Israel Lahey Health. After that issue, the hospital situation within the Commonwealth seemed to have stabilized for a few years.¹⁹

The bombshell that was the internally planned implosion of Steward Health Care absolutely rocked the local health care landscape. Quincy Hospital, prior to the implosion, seemed to be its first test run and target. After successfully closing that hospital, it moved to rape and pillage other community hospitals across Massachusetts, like a carnivorous private equity firm, until all the assets were completely destroyed and scooped up by its disgusting CEO, Ralph de la Torre.

Ralph de la Torre is the human face of the Steward Health Care collapse, but, to be fair, the damage was structural: Cerberus Capital Management, Medical Properties Trust, and Steward’s own leadership turned Massachusetts community hospitals into extraction operations.²⁰

Mass General Brigham

If we refocus on Brigham and Women’s Hospital, the corporate structure matters. Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital founded Partners HealthCare in 1994, with Partners later changing its name to Mass General Brigham in 2019. In March 2024, Mass General Brigham announced a multi-year plan to combine clinical departments and academic programs across the two flagship hospitals, while both hospitals remained distinct institutions.²¹

Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital are, separately, two of the most admired hospitals in the world. Brigham and Women’s Hospital’s nurses are unionized, while Massachusetts General Hospital’s nurses are not. I read that arrangement as a corporate incentive: a system that houses both labor models under one roof has reason to make the union model look expensive, unstable, and dispensable because any new unionization effort at Mass General would be seen as taxing the non-profit corporation.²²

The Question 1 money trail points back into that corporate world. In fiscal year 2018, the Partners HealthCare System Inc. & Affiliates Group Return reported $5,436,324 on Schedule C Part II-B for direct contact with legislators, legislative staff, government officials, or a legislative body. The filing said the majority of that money went to MHA, the same hospital association that supplied $24,573,500 to the No-on-1 committee, while MHA classified 90.14% of its membership dues as lobbying-related that year.

The five-year window makes that number hard to wave away as ordinary trade-association housekeeping. From fiscal year 2014 through fiscal year 2017, the Affiliates Group reported annual Schedule C Part II-B lobbying amounts of $348,413, $362,662, $631,682, and $415,444, an average of $439,550. In the Question 1 year, the number jumped to $5.4 million, 12.37 times the prior four-year average.²³

That is the corporate indictment. Mass General Brigham, then still called Partners HealthCare, did not have to oppose patient-care staffing ratios by standing at a bedside and saying they weren’t needed. It could sit inside MHA, help fund the lobbying ecosystem, and let the hospital association bury patient-care staffing ratios beneath questions while the No committee set the Massachusetts single-committee ballot-question spending record.²⁴

Gary Gottlieb and Betsy Nabel

My wife sat next to Partners HealthCare President and CEO Gary Gottlieb and Brigham and Women’s Health Care (BWHC) President Betsy Nabel while waiting to give her keynote speech at Brigham and Women’s Hospital back in 2015; she had been honored at the 18th Annual Partners in Excellence (PIE) Award Ceremony in 2014 and had been asked to return the next year as a speaker.

During that second PIE Awards ceremony at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Kate was praised by those leaders from the management side of the corporate system. Gary Gottlieb stood at the top of Partners HealthCare. Betsy Nabel was the head of Brigham and Women’s Health Care, sitting below Gary in the organization chart, at the time of that second ceremony.²⁵ The moment matters because Kate was being honored inside the same management world that would later line up against mandated nurse-patient limits; it was praise from above, not solidarity from beside. I’ve never forgotten that moment as a sort of little evil that permanently permeates secret boardrooms across America.

These hospital leaders may not be as brazen as Ralph de la Torre, but they’re ripping apart hospitals while getting paid enormous sums just the same. Many of these hospital organizations are designated as non-profit organizations, which is thick with ludicrous irony. The person who chooses to climb the corporate ladder and succeed in either the for-profit or non-profit world is the same person, and he or she would cut the throats of everybody in his or her way; this attitude is not built in service, it’s built in narcissistic greed.

Littler Mendelson P.C.

Mass General Brigham has already turned to Littler Mendelson P.C. in union fights inside its own system, including Brigham litigation with the MNA and the primary-care physician organizing case. A Brigham loss after a strike of this size would not belong only to one hospital. It would become a model for every health care executive trying to break the strongest nurse union in Massachusetts.²⁶

For Gary Gottlieb and Betsy Nabel, the trail is precise because it is institutional. Gary Gottlieb led Partners HealthCare during the years when Partners’ filings reported lobbying-linked payments to the Massachusetts Hospital Association (MHA). Shortly after Question 1 was defeated, an IRS-derived MHA filing listed Elizabeth G. Nabel as a board-level Director as of June 12, 2019, while she was still President of Brigham Health and Brigham and Women’s Hospital.²⁷

The same management universe that could put Kate on a stage and praise her work also lived inside the association that fought nurse-patient limits. That is the reason today’s strike cannot be separated from the 2018 ballot fight. Mass General Brigham is not simply negotiating with nurses; it is defending a corporate model that has already opposed one of the clearest patient-care demands nurses ever put before Massachusetts voters.

Beacon Hill’s Choice

When we think about the Democratic Party, we think of politicians who support unions, but in Massachusetts, we’ve seen some of the most important federal and state-level politicians either reject unionized nurses or remain silent on the Question 1 initiative. That silence speaks enormous volumes. Those same politicians need donations, and health care and insurance executives are among the most important donor classes around top Beacon Hill Democrats.²⁸

The same Beacon Hill that can move an eminent domain bill for Norwood Hospital is largely silent on labor relations. I fully understand that politicians shouldn’t get involved in private proceedings, but the way they pick and choose their battles says a lot about what they’re not doing. Many of them are clearly not supporting private unions, although they seem to have a lot to say about public unions, because they know that their bread is buttered by large corporations, not by smaller and disparate organizations like unions, which try to protect workers, working conditions for those workers, and the places that the public might patronize.

Kate is a phenomenal nurse who will be a pain in the ass to anybody who interferes with her patients’ care; there’s no question. Over the years, I’ve met many of her coworkers, and they all clearly care about their patients. When it comes to patient care, there’s no drama with them, only the thoughts, ideas, and work that may best help patients and the families of patients.

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Source Notes

1. Jonathan Bowen, Kate Higgins’ Keynote at the 2015 Brigham and Women’s Partners in Excellence (PIE) Awards, YouTube, January 13th, 2015; Brigham Bulletin, 19th Annual Partners in Excellence Awards at BWH, February 5th, 2015. The public records identify Kate Higgins as a Brigham and Women’s Hospital NICU nurse and Partners in Excellence speaker or honoree. ↩︎
2. Massachusetts Nurses Association, Largest Nurse and Healthcare Professional Strike in Massachusetts History Scheduled for July 8 as 4,500 MNA Nurses and Clinicians Plan Walk Out at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and MGB Home Care, June 26th, 2026; GBH News, Diane Adame, Brigham and Women’s nurses walk out in largest such strike in state history, updated July 8th, 2026; Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Brigham and Women’s Hospital Nursing Union Negotiations; Massachusetts Nurses Association, Member Services; Massachusetts Nurses Association, MNA Bargaining Units. ↩︎
3. Linda H. Aiken et al., Hospital Nurse Staffing and Patient Mortality, Nurse Burnout, and Job Dissatisfaction, JAMA, October 23rd, 2002; Massachusetts Health Policy Commission, HPC Regulation 958 CMR 8.00 to Implement the ICU Nurse Staffing Law. ↩︎
4. Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Massachusetts Statewide Ballot Measures: 1919-Present; Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Information for Voters: 2018 Ballot Questions, 2018. ↩︎
5. Massachusetts Office of Campaign and Political Finance, Ballot question committees report $42.6 million in expenditures, the second highest total ever, February 25th, 2019. OCPF reported $12,044,919 in expenditures by the Yes committee and $24,733,966 in expenditures by the No committee. ↩︎
6. Massachusetts Health & Hospital Association, Our Mission; Massachusetts Health & Hospital Association, MHA Membership; American Hospital Association, AONE weighs in on Mass. ballot initiative on mandated nurse staffing ratios, November 1st, 2018. ↩︎
7. U.S. Department of the Treasury, Laura Feiveson, Labor Unions and the U.S. Economy, August 28th, 2023; Patrick Denice and Jake Rosenfeld, Unions and Nonunion Pay in the United States, 1977-2015, Sociological Science, August 15th, 2018; Massachusetts Nurses Association, MNA Bargaining Units. ↩︎
8. CommonWealth Beacon, Michael Jonas, On nurse ballot measure, Dems line up with labor, October 18th, 2018; Boston Magazine, Spencer Buell, Your Endorsement Guide for Question 1, on Massachusetts’ Nurse Staffing Levels, October 23rd, 2018; CBS Boston/AP, Baker To Vote ‘No’ On Ballot Question 1 Nurse Staffing Mandates, October 11th, 2018. ↩︎
9. National Governors Association, Charlie Baker; Town of Needham, Charlie Baker; CBS Boston/AP, Baker To Vote ‘No’ On Ballot Question 1 Nurse Staffing Mandates, October 11th, 2018. ↩︎
10. CommonWealth Beacon, Ronald Mariano, Q1: A blunt instrument for a complex problem, November 2nd, 2018; Massachusetts Nurses Association, History; Massachusetts Nurses Association, MNA/NNU Quincy Medical Center Nurses Ratify Agreement with Steward Health Care, June 12th, 2013; Boston Globe, Robert Weisman and Priyanka Dayal McCluskey, Quincy Medical Center to close, November 6th, 2014. ↩︎
11. Massachusetts Legislature, Representative Robert A. DeLeo – Biography; Massachusetts Nurses Association, MNA nurses win ban on mandatory overtime in Mass., November 7th, 2012; Massachusetts Nurses Association, Governor Signs Landmark Law to Protect Patients by Setting Safe Patient Limits for Nurses in all Intensive Care Units, June 30th, 2014; Winthrop Transcript, Back to Life – Hospital development is good news for the town, February 28th, 2009. ↩︎
12. CommonWealth Beacon, Michael Jonas, On nurse ballot measure, Dems line up with labor, October 18th, 2018; Boston Magazine, Spencer Buell, Your Endorsement Guide for Question 1, on Massachusetts’ Nurse Staffing Levels, October 23rd, 2018. ↩︎
13. U.S. House of Representatives, History, Art & Archives, TSONGAS, Nicola S. (Niki); GBH / State House News Service, Matt Murphy and Colin A. Young, Tsongas Will Not Seek Reelection To Congress, August 9th, 2017; Tsongas Center at UMass Lowell, About The Tsongas Center; WBUR, Anthony Brooks, He’s Running. As Expected, Seth Moulton Jumps In The Crowded Presidential Race, April 22nd, 2019; WBUR, Fred Thys and Benjamin Swasey, Mass. U.S. Rep. Moulton Drops Out of Presidential Race, updated August 23rd, 2019. ↩︎
14. WBUR, Priyanka Dayal McCluskey, Steward promised to rebuild its hospital in Norwood. The town is still waiting, May 30th, 2024; WBUR / State House News Service, Alison Kuznitz, Beacon Hill eyes eminent domain to revive Norwood Hospital, July 7th, 2026; Massachusetts Legislature, House Bill 5192, filed March 3rd, 2026. ↩︎
15. Massachusetts Health & Hospital Association, Steward Hospitals Bought (and Closed), September 3rd, 2024; Boston.com, Molly Farrar, Steward to close an ‘essential’ Stoughton hospital in April, March 25th, 2024; Massachusetts Department of Public Health, Determination of Need: New England Sinai Hospital essential service closure; Boston 25 News, Jim Morelli and Frank O’Laughlin, Bankrupt Steward Health Care abandoning Norwood Hospital, closing affiliated facilities, October 9th, 2024; WCVB, Phil Tenser, One year later: Timeline of Steward’s bankruptcy, impact on Massachusetts hospitals, updated May 6th, 2025. ↩︎
16. Winthrop Transcript, Back to Life – Hospital development is good news for the town, February 28th, 2009; Massachusetts Nurses Association / National Nurses United, North Adams Regional Hospital Announces it Will Close on March 28 with Just Three Days Notice, March 26th, 2014; WAMC, Josh Landes, Ribbon cutting marks the full return of North Adams Regional Hospital a decade after its closure, March 29th, 2024; CBS Boston, Radius Specialty Hospitals Closing In Roxbury, Quincy, September 23rd, 2014. ↩︎
17. WCVB, Fire in transformer room prompts evacuations at Brockton Hospital, February 7th, 2023; Signature Healthcare, Signature Healthcare Brockton Hospital Targets Late Spring to Reopen; Massachusetts Nurses Association, Brockton Hospital Violates Nurses’ Contract with Unilateral Decision to Change Previously Negotiated Holiday Schedule, January 12th, 2023; CommonWealth Beacon, Methuen Hospital will be next in a string of maternity unit closures since 2010, July 2026. ↩︎
18. Massachusetts Health & Hospital Association, Steward Hospitals Bought (and Closed), September 3rd, 2024; WCVB, Phil Tenser, One year later: Timeline of Steward’s bankruptcy, impact on Massachusetts hospitals, updated May 6th, 2025. ↩︎
19. Canton Citizen, Milton Hospital teams with Beth Israel Deaconess, January 25th, 2012; Fierce Healthcare, Ron Shinkman, Beth Israel Deaconess, Milton Hospital to merge, April 28th, 2011; Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital-Milton, History. ↩︎
20. OCCRP / Boston Globe partnership, Khadija Sharife, How Private Equity and an Ambitious Landlord Put Steward Health Care on Life Support, October 9th, 2024; Senator Elizabeth Warren, On Anniversary of Steward Health Care Bankruptcy, Warren, Markey Push For Accountability for Ralph de la Torre and other Steward, MPT Executives, May 6th, 2025; Healthcare Dive, Susanna Vogel, Senate votes unanimously to hold Steward Health Care CEO in criminal contempt, September 26th, 2024. ↩︎
21. Brigham and Women’s Hospital, About Brigham and Women’s Hospital; Mass General Brigham, Advancing Care; Mass General Brigham, Unifying academic medical center departments is major step in journey to transform care, March 13th, 2024; Healthcare Dive, Susanna Vogel, Mass General Brigham lays out multi-year plan to integrate flagship hospitals, March 14th, 2024. ↩︎
22. Boston Globe, Jonathan Saltzman, State orders Mass General Brigham to justify planned Brigham burn unit closure, February 17th, 2026. ↩︎
23. Partners HealthCare System Inc. & Affiliates, Form 990 for fiscal year ending September 30th, 2014; Form 990 for fiscal year ending September 30th, 2015; Form 990 for fiscal year ending September 30th, 2016; Form 990 for fiscal year ending September 30th, 2017; Form 990 for fiscal year ending September 30th, 2018. The filings report Schedule C Part II-B lobbying totals of $348,413, $362,662, $631,682, $415,444, and $5,436,324, respectively, and state that the majority of lobbying funds were payments to the Massachusetts Hospital Association. ↩︎
24. Massachusetts Office of Campaign and Political Finance, Ballot question committees report $42.6 million in expenditures, the second highest total ever, February 25th, 2019; WBUR / State House News Service, Chris Triunfo, At Partners, Nurses Say Hospitals Can Afford Staffing Requirements, August 21st, 2018; Becker’s Hospital Review, Ayla Ellison, Massachusetts hospitals, union clash over cost of nurse staffing ballot issue, September 18th, 2018. ↩︎
25. Jonathan Bowen, Kate Higgins’ Keynote at the 2015 Brigham and Women’s Partners in Excellence (PIE) Awards, YouTube, January 13th, 2015; Brigham Bulletin, 19th Annual Partners in Excellence Awards at BWH, February 5th, 2015. The Brigham Bulletin identified Gary Gottlieb as Partners President and Betsy Nabel as BWHC President at that ceremony. ↩︎
26. National Labor Relations Board, Case 01-RC-354925, Mass General Brigham; American Prospect, David Dayen, Corporations and the Crisis of Care, June 1st, 2026; Justia Dockets, Massachusetts Nurses Association v. Brigham and Women’s Hospital, D. Mass., case 1:25-cv-12211; GBH News, Mark Herz, Union wins two elections among clinical staff at McLean Hospital, April 26th, 2022. ↩︎
27. Partners In Health, Dr. Gary Gottlieb Joins PIH, March 16th, 2015; Partners HealthCare System Inc. & Affiliates, Form 990 for fiscal year ending September 30th, 2013; Nonprofit Light, Massachusetts Health And Hospital Assoc Inc, fiscal year ending September 2019; ModeX Therapeutics, Elizabeth Nabel. ↩︎
28. Boston Globe, Matt Stout, Samantha J. Gross, Neena Hagen, Anjali Huynh, Yoohyun Jung, and Emma Platoff, Health care giants, led by Blue Cross Blue Shield, helped keep top Massachusetts politicians’ campaigns flush, July 8th, 2025; CommonWealth Beacon, Colin A. Young, Health care cash rained on Mass. lobbying world in 2024, March 21st, 2025. ↩︎