State Budgets Taking Aim at Hospitals 

State budget negotiations across our region are having a detrimental impact on the financial stability of hospitals.  The Rhode Island General Assembly is poised to enact a budget that will cut hospital payments by $27 million.  This is a significant improvement from the $84 million in cuts originally proposed, which were reduced following the work of a taskforce charged with identifying ways to decrease Medicaid costs. Connecticut legislators have passed a budget that will expand the state's hospital tax from $269 million to $315 million per year and cut the Medicaid program by $30 million.  Read more below about the impact of these payment reductions and increased fees:

Hartford Courant - More Hospital Groups Critique State Budget, Warn of Consequences

The Providence Journal - RI House Budget Adjusts Medicaid Proposals, Softens Cuts

Winner of the Best in New England Award

The Hartford HealthCare (HHC) Behavioral Health Network (BHN) received the NESHCO "Best of New England" honor for its National Dialogue on Mental Health (NDMH) Community Relations Event/Campaign.

Between January 2014 and January 2015, the HHC BHN held a series of free public forums under the title "National Dialogue on Mental Health (NDMH)." These forums were organized across a wide geographical portion of the BHN's service area, tackling topics of both mental health and substance abuse that are of interest to the public. 

This was the second year for the National Dialogue on Mental Health, which is a community-based response to the tragedy that occurred at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in December 2012. The NDMH emphasizes education and conversation, and provides to the Behavioral Health Network a means by which to build positive relationships with the communities it serves. Most importantly, it serves to improve awareness about mental health and substance abuse issues to help prevent future tragedies.

"Thinking of the amount of work that must have gone into the coordination of the events and the subsequent marketing tools needed to promote this series made me tired, and hats off to the team that made it look effortless," one judge commented. "The branding theme throughout the materials was brilliant and engaging. The message was very clear, easy to understand and navigate. The components were all necessary and made for a well executed comprehensive campaign."

This award marks the second year in a row that Hartford HealthCare has received the NESHCO "Best of New England" honor. 

2015 Webinar Series

Planning for a website redesign: What every organization should know

Thursday, July 23

9-10 am

Presented by Paul Griffiths, CEO + Founding Partner, MedTouch and Kevin Robinson, Communications Director, Berkshire Farm Center and Services for Youth (Previously: Communications Director, Southwestern Vermont Medical Center)

This webinar will address everything you need to plan for when embarking on an integrated digital strategy and technology project. Learn how to drive your digital marketing goals and position your website to offer a customized experience for your patients and prospective patients.  No matter what challenges you face - organizational change, small budget or team, tight timeline- you can achieve successful digital results.

About Paul and Kevin
Paul is the CEO + Founding Partner of MedTouch.  For the last 10 years, he has worked with hospital and health plan clients to set vision and chart a path to digital success. Paul is a frequent speaker at healthcare marketing conferences, such as SXSW, HCIC, and SHSMD. He has more than 15 years of combined experience in executive leadership, interactive marketing, experience design, and content management solutions.

Paul was named to the Boston Business Journal "40 under 40" cohort in 2008; he led MedTouch to consecutive BBJ Pacesetter Awards in 2013, 2014 and 2015, as one of Massachusetts' fastest growing private companies and to the Inc. 500 | 5000 in 2013 and 2014, a national list of the fastest growing private companies. Paul earned a Master of Arts in Creative Writing from Boston University, and a Bachelor of Arts in Creative Writing from Sarah Lawrence College.

Kevin Robinson is the Communications Director of the Berkshire Farm Center and Services for Youth, in Canaan, N.Y. Prior to that, he was Communications Director Southwestern Vermont Medical Center in Bennington, Vt. A native of Memphis, Tennessee, he holds a B.A. and M.A. in English literature from Mississippi State University and completed additional coursework toward a Ph.D. at the University of Nevada Las Vegas. He has a background in teaching, technical writing, and scientific journalism. He has worked as a reporter for a daily newspaper, a technical writer for research on high-temperature plasma, and a scientific journalist for a trade journal covering the biophotonics industry. He has been an adjunct professor of English, technical writing, and composition at the University of Nevada Las Vegas and Berkshire Community College.

Since 1998, he has been active in non-profit corporate communications. During that time, he has won numerous awards for communications and public relations projects, websites, and advertising campaigns. He has won two awards for crisis communications, and his work to develop a website for physician recruiting led to the first hospital website ever to win an international Interactive Media Award. Kevin lives in Hoosick Falls with his wife Elizabeth, their cat Smidgen, and a dozen chickens.