BOSTON — One-third of the way into a first-of-its-kind mandatory campaign to curb spending, Mass General Brigham has achieved about a quarter of its savings target, state regulators said Wednesday.

Mass General Brigham, an affiliate of Cooley Dickinson Hospital in Northampton, has saved $45.3 million through March 2023, which slightly outperformed its expected savings of $44.2 million, according to a public status update the state’s largest hospital system submitted to the Health Policy Commission.

The commission voted last fall to require MGB to slash its spending by $176.3 million over an 18-month period after flagging it for years of excessive spending above a state benchmark designed to control health care costs.

Kara Vidal, the HPC’s director of health system planning and performance, told commissioners that MGB expects its savings will climb as various initiatives accelerate. The hospital system expects it will meet its 18-month target and has not made any requests to amend the cost-containment plan, Vidal said.

“We’re about a third of the way through the time, we’re about 25 percent through the savings target, but they did not anticipate that savings would be broken up equally month over month,” Vidal said. “There were some interventions that started later, so they report still being on track to meet their total savings target of $176.3 million.”

About 70 percent of the savings will come from MGB making price concessions, which Vidal said represents “by far the largest category” in the plan. So far, the system’s work to rein in prices is outpacing its expectations — MGB expected to save $25.4 million on price concessions through March and in fact saved $27.6 million through March, according to figures Vidal presented.

MGB is required to submit its next public report about the performance improvement plan, which was the very first the HPC ordered since the regulatory body came into existence a decade ago, after it hits the one-year mark on Sept. 30.

 

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