Massachusetts

Steward has until Friday to submit financial records

February 23, 2024 by

Friday is the deadline for Steward Health Care to turnover its financial records to the state of Massachusetts.

Gov. Maura Healey said earlier this week that Steward should transfer ownership of the hospitals and leave the state altogether.

She’s demanding Steward create an action plan to detail how they plan to address these financial woes, saying if they don’t comply, the state will act by possibly freezing admissions to any of their nine hospitals in the state, closing beds and transferring patients to other hospitals.

In a three-page letter to Steward’s CEO, Healey listed several demands, including ensuring safe staffing and supply levels, allowing the state Department of Public Health to put monitors in all of its locations and immediately release its financial records.

Steward — a Texas-based health care system — operates nine hospitals in Massachusetts and reportedly owes $50 million in unpaid rent.

Meanwhile, the financial crisis are showing even in the little things such as the shortage of supplies due to not paying their vendors. Workers at two Boston locations say patients have already stopped coming in assuming hospitals are closed or are concerned about the care they may receive.

“Sometimes it’s difficult to get paper, water, some extension sets for IVs in the emergency room,” said a health care worker during a Boston City Council meeting Thursday.

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Biden administration to cancel $19.5M in student debt for almost 2,500 Mass. borrowers

February 23, 2024 by

Thousands of students in Massachusetts are set to have their student loans forgiven.

The Biden administration provided new details overnight on how their newly released plan to relieve student debt impacts the Bay State.

Out of 153,000 people getting their student loans forgiven in the country, 6,000 are in New England.

Massachusetts tops the New England list with almost 2,500 borrowers with $19.5 million forgiven, followed by Connecticut with 1,600 people and almost 14 million in debt cancellation and smaller figures for the rest.

President Joe Biden’s Saving on a Valuable Education Plan, or SAVE, is forgiving a total of $1.2 billion in student loans nation-wide.

There’s currently 7.5 million people enrolled in the SAVE plan, with 100,000 of them in the Commonwealth.

The U.S. Education Department said it’s trying to expand the program and hopes to get to a point where it will be forgiving student loans on a regular basis.

“While a college degree is still a ticket to a better life, that ticket is too expensive and too many Americans are still saddled with unsustainable debt in exchange for a college degree,” said Biden.

To qualify for future loan forgiveness, you must be enrolled in the SAVE plan, have been making payments for at least 10 years and taken out $12,000 or less for college.

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Rain hits New England Friday morning before chilly weekend

February 23, 2024 by

Rain to greet us Friday morning. While it isn’t intense, it will still slow you down through the commute. And although temperatures will bounce back to the low 40s, there’s still a raw quality to the day. It certainly won’t feel like…

John Hancock to increase in-office employee policy this spring

February 23, 2024 by

Insurance giant John Hancock is planning to transition its workforce to three days in the office, starting in April.

The company currently requires employees to be in the office two days a week, on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

5 hospitalized after Foxborough ambulance crash, including EMTs, patient and child

February 22, 2024 by

Two EMTs and a patient were among five people hospitalized Thursday after an ambulance and an SUV collided head-on in Foxborough, Massachusetts.

The crash happened around 7 p.m. on Main Street, the Norfolk County District Attorney’s Office sa…

Harmony Montgomery ‘was afraid of her father,’ Mass. investigators were told after issuing report

February 22, 2024 by

On the day Adam Montgomery was convicted in New Hampshire of murdering his daughter, the attorney assigned to protect the legal interests of Harmony Montgomery in Massachusetts delivered a stinging rebuke.

In an NBC10 Boston exclusive interview, Maria Mossaides, the state’s chief child advocate, says after her investigation was published, a credible source came forward to reveal a key detail not uncovered in the monthslong review of the girl’s case.

“We received information after we issued our report that indicated that Harmony was afraid of her father,” Mossaides said.

It’s not clear whether this is information Harmony’s attorney was aware of, but according to Mossaides, who has listened to tape recordings of the court proceedings, Harmony’s attorney told the judge the little girl wanted to be with her father.

“And so the question that I really want to ask, but can’t ask because of attorney-client privilege, is ‘Did you have a conversation with Harmony? Did you explain to Harmony what it would mean for her to move out of state?’” Mossaides said.

“That we didn’t find out until afterwards certainly impacted me, because it just reinforced for us how premature the decision was to send her home,” she continued. “And that has bothered me since the person called to share that information.”

Ultimately, a Massachusetts judge allowed Adam Montgomery to gain custody of his daughter. A jury convicted him of her murder Thursday.

A long list of recommendations for the Massachusetts courts and the state’s Department of Children and Families appears in the Office of Child Advocate investigative report, released in May 2022. Mossaides says she’s been pleased to date with DCF’s progress to implement her team’s recommendations.

In a statement to NBC10 Boston, the Massachusetts Trial Court says it’s also working to implement new policies and procedures “that cover all of these crucial areas” in the OCA report.

However neither the court nor DCF has authority over lawyers representing children in custody cases. Changes the state’s child advocate would like to see in the legal representation area may require legislation.

“I think the recommendation, in which we have made no progress whatsoever, is the discussion around what the child’s attorney should be required to do,” Mossaides said. “And this is an issue that has to be of primary concern to the legislature.”

Trial Court spokesperson Jennifer Donahue issued the following statement:

“Based on recommendations by the Office of the Child Advocate and based on an internal review of court policies and practices that relate to the timely placement of children, the Trial Court formed a working group in 2022 comprised of Juvenile Court judges and key partners in care and protection proceedings. Working group members include the Department of Children and Families, the Committee for Public Counsel Services and the Office of the Child Advocate.

“The working group is examining Care and Protection policies and procedures, establishing reasonable time periods to the permanent placement of children, and identifying and addressing barriers to achieving timely permanency. The working group is in the process of developing recommendations that cover all of these crucial areas. Policies and procedures are being examined by the Trial Court and the working group, and recommendations are being developed.“

More on Harmony Montgomery

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