Dive Brief:

• The Massachusetts Nurses’ Association got enough petition signatures to put two items on the November ballot: one setting parameters on nurse staffing ratios, and the other providing public information on hospital CEOs’ compensation and much more. Signatures must be certified, but the group got 25,000 for each initiative, more than double the requirement.
• The nurses' first ballot initiative would set a maximum number of patients assigned to a nurse. The second would require hospitals getting tax dollars to provide comprehensive financial documents on hospital profits and CEO compensations; it would also cap hospital profits and CEO salaries, and give excess funding to hospitals serving poorer populations.
• Nurses assert that they have solid public support for both measures.

Dive Insight:

The fight for hospital reform — and more transparency in the reformed U.S. healthcare marketplace — is making its way to the voters in Massachusetts. Not surprisingly, the nurses' initiatives are strongly opposed by the Massachusetts Hospital Association and the Massachusetts Medical Society.

With respect to mandated staffing ratios, the nurses group has taken the issue to the ballot because they failed to get it passed in the state legislature over the past 15 years, the hospital group told the Boston Business Journal. “The legislature recognizes that it is a bad idea, one that would unnecessarily restrict the clinical judgment of doctors and nurses, who provide the best care in the country, at a time when healthcare is changing dramatically,” MHA said.