With Butler Hospital strike, a vital R.I. resource is being put at risk
Sign up to get breaking news and interesting stories from Rhode Island in your inbox each weekday.
Enter Email
Sign Up
However,
Advertisement
From the beginning,
In recent meetings, the union has openly discussed 'setting a template' for statewide labor actions. They're framing this as a strategic escalation against hospital leaders, while also expanding their campaign to the government, board members, banks, and civic organizations.
Advertisement
Unlike SEIU, other unions have chosen not to strike and to continue negotiations, despite having a strike authorization, whereas SEIU decided on an indefinite strike. They are coordinating with political activists, using community events, and targeting our Board of Trustees with public pressure tactics aimed at intimidating rather than engaging.
In short, this is not a conventional
Let me be clear: we respect the right of workers to organize and advocate for better compensation, benefits, retirement, and working conditions. However, Butler Hospital is a behavioral health facility that serves some of the most vulnerable Rhode Islanders. It was never meant to be a stage for a political theater of escalation.
The damage being done is real: critical behavioral health programs across the state were already strained, and capacity at Butler is now being reduced out of necessity because of the union's action. A vital community resource is being put at risk — not because of its policies or finances, but because it was chosen as a beachhead for a broader conflict.
There's a moral price for that. And a practical one as well.
We must not allow the illusion of a righteous movement to obscure the deeper reality: when a strike becomes a symbolic crusade, it stops being about resolution and starts being about power. The people of Rhode Island deserve better. Our patients deserve better. And our health care workforce — union and non-union alike — deserves leadership that seeks solutions, not standoffs.
Advertisement
There is still a path forward. It begins with an honest consideration of Butler's actual circumstances — not those of other hospitals, not ideological ambitions, not long-term organizing goals. The future of health care in Rhode Island should be shaped through collaboration, not coercion.
We want the workers on strike to return to their positions.
We urge the union to end the strike and return to work, allowing our leaders to focus on the negotiations while the employees focus on the patients who need them. If this doesn't happen, we will continue to encourage more workers to cross the line to join those who have already courageously done so. Plus, we will be forced to explore further reductions.
Continuing the strike will only reduce access to behavioral health services across the state — at a time when our most vulnerable patients need these services more than ever.
This is not about winning a narrative. It's about doing the right thing. We encourage Butler employees to return to their positions to do what they do best — caring for patients.
Dr. Michael Wagner is the president and CEO of Care New England.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Boston Globe
11-07-2025
- Boston Globe
With Butler Hospital strike, a vital R.I. resource is being put at risk
Get Rhode Island News Alerts Sign up to get breaking news and interesting stories from Rhode Island in your inbox each weekday. Enter Email Sign Up However, Advertisement From the beginning, In recent meetings, the union has openly discussed 'setting a template' for statewide labor actions. They're framing this as a strategic escalation against hospital leaders, while also expanding their campaign to the government, board members, banks, and civic organizations. Advertisement Unlike SEIU, other unions have chosen not to strike and to continue negotiations, despite having a strike authorization, whereas SEIU decided on an indefinite strike. They are coordinating with political activists, using community events, and targeting our Board of Trustees with public pressure tactics aimed at intimidating rather than engaging. In short, this is not a conventional Let me be clear: we respect the right of workers to organize and advocate for better compensation, benefits, retirement, and working conditions. However, Butler Hospital is a behavioral health facility that serves some of the most vulnerable Rhode Islanders. It was never meant to be a stage for a political theater of escalation. The damage being done is real: critical behavioral health programs across the state were already strained, and capacity at Butler is now being reduced out of necessity because of the union's action. A vital community resource is being put at risk — not because of its policies or finances, but because it was chosen as a beachhead for a broader conflict. There's a moral price for that. And a practical one as well. We must not allow the illusion of a righteous movement to obscure the deeper reality: when a strike becomes a symbolic crusade, it stops being about resolution and starts being about power. The people of Rhode Island deserve better. Our patients deserve better. And our health care workforce — union and non-union alike — deserves leadership that seeks solutions, not standoffs. Advertisement There is still a path forward. It begins with an honest consideration of Butler's actual circumstances — not those of other hospitals, not ideological ambitions, not long-term organizing goals. The future of health care in Rhode Island should be shaped through collaboration, not coercion. We want the workers on strike to return to their positions. We urge the union to end the strike and return to work, allowing our leaders to focus on the negotiations while the employees focus on the patients who need them. If this doesn't happen, we will continue to encourage more workers to cross the line to join those who have already courageously done so. Plus, we will be forced to explore further reductions. Continuing the strike will only reduce access to behavioral health services across the state — at a time when our most vulnerable patients need these services more than ever. This is not about winning a narrative. It's about doing the right thing. We encourage Butler employees to return to their positions to do what they do best — caring for patients. Dr. Michael Wagner is the president and CEO of Care New England.
Boston Globe
07-07-2025
- Boston Globe
How R.I.'s new state health lab will be more ‘flexible, adaptable, and responsive to emerging threats'
Q. For folks who are unaware, what does the Rhode Island State Health Laboratory do? Gallagher: Rhode Islanders are affected every day by the work of [the Rhode Island Department of Health] State Health Laboratories. We help ensure the health and safety of the air we breathe, the food we eat, and the water we drink. The lab supports law enforcement in their investigations; promotes public safety; helps determine exposure to environmental toxins like lead and chemicals like Get Rhode Island News Alerts Sign up to get breaking news and interesting stories from Rhode Island in your inbox each weekday. Enter Email Sign Up The State Health Laboratories also provide testing services not available anywhere else in the state, like rabies testing and arbovirus testing of mosquitoes. Advertisement How does the new lab space change lab operations? What will you be able to do that you can't do at the current facility? What will be improved at the new lab? This new, state-of-the-art facility will allow RIDOH to be more flexible, adaptable, and responsive to emerging threats. The new facility will also allow better data management in updated information technology networks, more space for new instrumentation, and space designed for workflow optimization. Advertisement One particular area of growth will involve pathogen genomic sequencing, which is a process that allows us to understand a pathogen's genetic makeup. This has the potential to revolutionize how we monitor and treat infectious diseases and investigate crimes. We started this work during the COVID-19 pandemic, and now we will be at the cutting edge of this field with this facility. When you say revolutionize, what do you mean? And what about the lab will be cutting edge for pathogen genomic sequencing? For a long time, scientists in our field were focused on determining the presence or absence of an organism. Over the last five to 10 years, genomic sequencing has opened up a whole new world. Now, in addition to determining the presence or absence of an organism, we're learning about what types of treatments it would be resistant to, whether it's related to other clusters of pathogens, and how to best develop countermeasures, like vaccines. People talk about genomic sequencing as revolutionary because it's allowing us to get out ahead of public health threats like never before. The new State Health Laboratories will have expanded capacity for genomic sequencing. Rhode Island Dept of Health Lab Director Dr. Glen Gallaher, left, and RI Governor Dan McKee, right, spoke before the media toured the new Rhode Island State Laboratories last month in downtown Providence. John Tlumacki/Globe Staff The new building will house the new state laboratory, as well as , the quasi-public agency working to lure biotech companies to the state. The building, when complete, will also join . How may the state laboratory leverage that location for future collaboration? Are there research partnerships to be made with your new neighbors? Advertisement At our new location, we look forward to building out some of our existing relationships with academic researchers at institutes of higher education and industry labs. We already work with Brown University and the University of Rhode Island on shared interests to better leverage the data generated by our laboratory. We're hoping that this can extend to more practical, shared collaboration in the new space. One area of potential benefit could be for startups looking to field test new equipment and generate the data needed to drive the adoption of new devices and new technologies. Will the Health Department seek partnerships with start ups? We're always looking to explore new collaborations with people and entities that can help us better serve Rhode Islanders. The state health laboratory began testing wastewater during the COVID pandemic, and wastewater testing will now have a dedicated area in the new lab building. How does the laboratory decide which new initiatives to pursue? Does the lab have plans to expand its capabilities at all in the coming years? We test for the presence of some pathogens in our environment in response to national clinical and public health trends. We also set priorities based on the specific needs of our local partners, like health care providers, public health practitioners, hospitals, community organizations, and others. The foundational technological capacity we have in wastewater testing certainly presents us with opportunities to expand for additional pathogen testing in the future. How will Rhode Islanders feel the impact of this new lab space? The improvements we'll be able to make at the new facility with our new instrumentation will, in some cases, mean results provided to our partners and the public more quickly. Advertisement And the people who use our testing services will feel an impact as well. With the new facility, we are moving toward more digital systems for test requests, receiving results, and payment for services. These enhancements will make the experience of accessing our testing services much easier. With other workflow improvements, results will generally be available much sooner as well. The Boston Globe's weekly Ocean State Innovators column features a Q&A with Rhode Island innovators who are starting new businesses and nonprofits, conducting groundbreaking research, and reshaping the state's economy. Send tips and suggestions to reporter Alexa Gagosz at . Christopher Gavin can be reached at
Yahoo
12-06-2025
- Yahoo
Three R.I. health insurers pay over $1 million in fines for lapses in COVID coverage
Three Rhode Island health insurers were fined for charging patients out-of-pocket costs for pandemic-related care, such as emergency room care, doctor visits, and hospital stays, that should have been fully covered, the Office of the Health Insurance Commissioner said. (Getty image) UnitedHealthcare paid $1 million and two Rhode Island health insurers paid lesser fines for violating state rules for health coverage of COVID-19 services. Health Insurance Commissioner Cory King announced Thursday that his office had finished collecting fines charged to UnitedHealthcare, Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island (BCBSRI) and Aetna. The insurers were penalized for charging patients out-of-pocket costs for pandemic-related care, such as emergency room care, doctor visits, and hospital stays — services that should have been fully covered under a 2021 rule promulgated by Patrick Tigue, King's predecessor in the the Office of the Health Insurance Commissioner (OHIC). UnitedHealthcare incurred the heaviest fine while Blue Cross and Aetna were fined $20,000 and $10,000, respectively. Consent decrees for the insurance companies stipulated payment was due for UnitedHealthcare and Aetna on June 2, while Blue Cross needed to pay up by June 6. King said Thursday that the final payment was made last week. 'OHIC expects health insurance companies to comply with the law,' King wrote in an email. 'When they do not, they must take corrective actions and face consequences.' The fines accumulated from July 3, 2021, when the rule was formalized into general law, through May 11, 2023, when Rhode Island's cost waiver rule expired and the COVID-19 public health emergency officially ended. The cost waiver, however, only applied to fully insured plans, or coverage plans purchased by employers in which the insurer assumes the financial responsibility and risk. The cost mandate did not apply to people receiving services under self-insured plans — the kind of coverage often purchased by larger companies and held by about 60% of covered Rhode Islanders. The three consent decrees OHIC released Thursday detail the scope of violations and how the insurers fixed their billing problems. UnitedHealthcare's hefty $1 million fine derived from 1,545 claims in which Rhode Island plan members were wrongly charged for COVID-related care. In 2023, the company reprocessed the claims and refunded roughly $270,000 to affected members. 'We are pleased to have resolved this issue with the Rhode Island Office of the Health Insurance Commissioner,' Bradley J. Alexander, a spokesperson for United, said in an email Thursday. 'We remain focused on helping individuals access care while supporting our employees, our network of care providers, our clients and the communities we serve.' The Blue Cross case was less straightforward. The insurer had already waived cost-sharing for COVID treatment in April 2020, according to spokesperson Rich Salit. 'BCBSRI's cost-share waiver applied to all in-network services and out-of-network services received outside of Rhode Island,' Salit wrote. 'For services in Rhode Island, BCBSRI was encouraging members to seek care from our broad network, as members going out-of-network could still be exposed to provider balance billing.' Balance billing is when out-of-network providers charge patients for what insurance didn't pay. According to the consent decree, Blue Cross believed its policy complied with the OHIC statute, at first indicating 'that it was not waiving cost sharing on services related to the treatment of COVID-19 if such services were provided by out-of-network providers within Rhode Island.' Nevertheless, OHIC did not agree with that interpretation, penalized the company for not covering the out-of-network care in 19 claims. Blue Cross was required to pay $1,751.60 in refunds, plus the $20,000 fine. Salit said the claims came from eight plan members. 'BCBSRI agreed to reimburse the cost sharing those members incurred and updated its policy, and the matter was resolved,' Salit wrote. Aetna, a subsidiary of CVS, only had three claims flagged under the OHIC rule. 'We are pleased this agreement resolves issues with the OHIC related to three (3) Aetna claims, which we reprocessed in 2022,' Phillip J. Blando, an Aetna spokesperson, wrote via email. The penalty money goes into the state's general fund, according to OHIC. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
