Dive Brief:
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Staff at Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital will vote in approximately six weeks on whether to unionize about 500 non-clinical workers, the Boston Business Journal reported.
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Brigham and Women’s, located in Jamaica Plain, Mass., is part of the Partners Healthcare network, which reached an agreement with United Healthcare Workers East 1199SEIU last summer to unionize non-clinical workers at some of its other hospitals.
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The Faulkner Hospital unionization may allow Partners HealthCare to avoid a vote on a ballot question that would regulate the amount they could charge for hospital services, a move that could drastically cut into Partners’ profits, according to the Journal.
Dive Insight:
Hospital unions typically negotiate over issues surrounding pay and benefits. Employees want to feel they have a voice. The ballot question would limit the amount hospitals in the state could charge for services. If passed, the legislation would essentially be moving funds from the most-expensive to least-expensive hospitals.
Instead, the agreement will provide "financial relief" to community hospitals, funded in part by the state and in part by a one-time assessment on hospitals. In addition, the state will establish a group—which will include representatives from healthcare advocacy groups—to be tasked with developing ways to address healthcare pricing disparities in the state.
Meanwhile, the union isn’t taking any chances on letting the issue slip through their fingers. It is still collecting signatures to put the question on the November ballot.