Mass General Brigham

Mass General Brigham Inc. (MGB, formerly Partners HealthCare) is a not-for-profit, integrated health system based in Greater Boston. It operates two academic medical centers—Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women's Hospital—along with specialty and community hospitals, home care, urgent care, and a licensed health plan serving Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire. The system is a principal teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School. In November 2019, Partners announced a five-year strategy and said it would rebrand as Mass General Brigham to present a unified identity across the system.^[5]

Mass General Brigham

Office campus at Assembly Square in Somerville, Massachusetts
Abbreviation	MGB
Formation	1994; 31 years ago (1994)
Type	Nonprofit
Legal status	501(c)(3)
Headquarters	Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.[1]
Services	Healthcare
President & CEO	Anne Klibanski[2]
Subsidiaries	Massachusetts General Hospital Brigham and Women's Hospital McLean Hospital Spaulding Rehabilitation Mass Eye and Ear Newton-Wellesley Hospital Salem Hospital Wentworth-Douglass Hospital Cooley Dickinson Hospital Martha's Vineyard Hospital Nantucket Cottage Hospital MGH Institute of Health Professions Mass General Brigham Health Plan
Affiliations	Harvard Medical School
Revenue	US$20.6 billion[3] (2024)
Staff	~82,000[4] (2024)
Website	www.massgeneralbrigham.org
Formerly called	Partners HealthCare (1994–2020)

As of fiscal 2024, MGB reported about US$20.6 billion in operating revenue and a return to positive operating margin after pandemic-era losses.^[6] With roughly 82,000 employees, it has been described as the state’s largest private employer.^[7] The system has drawn regulatory scrutiny over costs and expansion: in January 2022 the Massachusetts Health Policy Commission ordered MGB to file the state’s first system-wide Performance Improvement Plan, and in December 2024 the HPC said the plan delivered “meaningful” cost-growth reductions.^[8][9]

From 2023, Boston cancer-care alignments shifted: Dana–Farber Cancer Institute announced it would end its adult inpatient oncology affiliation with Brigham and Women’s and build a freestanding adult cancer hospital with Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center; state regulators approved the project in March 2025.^[10][11] In 2025 MGB undertook multi-wave nonclinical layoffs as part of a restructuring,^[7] and residents and fellows who unionized in 2023 ratified a first system-wide contract in May 2025.^[12]

History

The Bulfinch Building at Massachusetts General Hospital, part of the system’s 19th-century core

Origins and formation (1994)

Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women's Hospital created a new parent corporation, Partners HealthCare, in 1994 amid industry pressure to coordinate care, negotiate with payers, and control costs.^[13]

Early expansion and payer integration (1996–2014)

Following formation, Partners expanded across eastern Massachusetts via affiliations with community and specialty hospitals. North Shore Medical Center (now Salem Hospital) became the first community member in 1996; Faulkner Hospital merged with Brigham and Women’s in 1998; and Newton-Wellesley Hospital joined in 1999.^[14][15] In 2006, Partners added Martha's Vineyard Hospital and Nantucket Cottage Hospital.^[16]

Partners also pursued a payer strategy: in 2011–2012 it acquired Neighborhood Health Plan, a Boston-based insurer later rebranded as AllWays Health Partners and, effective January 1, 2023, as Mass General Brigham Health Plan.^{[17][18][19][20]} The system expanded beyond Massachusetts when Wentworth-Douglass Hospital in Dover, New Hampshire, joined the Massachusetts General Hospital family in 2017.^[21]

During this period, Partners’ market influence drew scrutiny. A 2008 Boston Globe Spotlight report described a 2000 rate arrangement with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts that affected statewide payment levels.^[22] Proposed acquisitions of South Shore and Hallmark Health (2013–2015) were abandoned after a Suffolk Superior Court judge rejected a proposed consent judgment and state officials signaled opposition.^[23][24]

Systems integration and footprint changes (2015–2018)

Beginning in 2015, Partners rolled out a unified electronic health record (Epic/Partners eCare). Contemporary reporting put the initiative at roughly $1.2 billion, with phased go-lives at Brigham and Women’s in May 2015 and at Massachusetts General in April 2016; clinicians reported productivity slowdowns during the transition.^[25][26] In 2016 the system consolidated corporate offices at Assembly Row in Somerville, Massachusetts, a project reported at about $465 million that centralized more than 4,000 administrative employees.^[27][28]

On the North Shore, Partners invested in Salem Hospital and closed the Union Hospital campus in Lynn in 2019 as part of a service consolidation.^[29][30] In 2018, state officials approved Partners’ acquisition of Massachusetts Eye and Ear.^[31]

Rebranding and alignment (2019–2021)

On November 27, 2019, Partners announced a five-year strategy and said the system would adopt the name Mass General Brigham to present a unified identity across corporate, hospital, and ambulatory entities.^[5] Coverage at the time estimated rebranding costs ranging from about $60 million to as much as $100 million, prompting debate over the expense during a period of financial strain for hospitals.^[32]

COVID-19 response (2020)

During the first pandemic surge, the Commonwealth, City of Boston, and Partners created the Boston Hope 1,000-bed field hospital inside the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center in April 2020.^[33][34] Later reporting placed the cost of operating Boston Hope at roughly $29.8 million, largely reimbursable with federal support.^[35]

Regulatory oversight and suburban proposals (2021–2022)

In January 2022, the Massachusetts Health Policy Commission (HPC) required MGB to file the state’s first system-wide Performance Improvement Plan to curb spending growth; in December 2024 the HPC concluded the plan delivered “meaningful” cost-growth reductions.^[8][9] Amid state review and local opposition, MGB withdrew key parts of a proposal to build new ambulatory sites in Woburn and Westborough in April 2022.^[36]

Cancer-care realignment, labor activity, and restructuring (2023–present)

In September 2023, Dana–Farber Cancer Institute announced plans to end its adult inpatient oncology affiliation with Brigham and Women’s and to build a freestanding adult cancer hospital with Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center; state regulators approved the project in March 2025.^[10][11]

Financially, MGB reported an operating loss in FY2022 amid inflation and staffing pressures, then returned to a positive operating margin on US$20.6 billion in operating revenue in FY2024.^[37][6] In early 2025, the system announced its largest layoffs to date—two waves focused on nonclinical roles—as part of a multi-year restructuring.^[7][38]

Labor activity increased during the same period. More than 2,300 residents and fellows unionized in 2023^[39] and, after roughly 18 months of bargaining, ratified a first contract in May 2025;^[12] attending physicians at Salem Hospital voted to unionize in March 2024,^[40] and academic primary care physicians at Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women's Hospital voted in 2025 to unionize pending certification.^[41]

Organization

Academic medical centers

• Massachusetts General Hospital — academic medical center and principal Harvard teaching hospital; verified Level I Adult & Pediatric Trauma Center and home to Mass General for Children (MGfC).^[42][43]
• Brigham and Women's Hospital — academic medical center and Harvard teaching hospital; verified Level I Trauma Center with an adult burn program.^[42][44]

• 
  Massachusetts General Hospital (Bulfinch Building)
• 
  Postcard of Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston 1915-1930

Specialty hospitals

• Massachusetts Eye and Ear — specialty teaching hospital for ophthalmology and otolaryngology–head & neck surgery; primary teaching hospital of Harvard Ophthalmology and home to extensive vision and hearing research.^[42][45][46]
• McLean Hospital — psychiatric hospital and research center in Belmont, Massachusetts; the largest psychiatric teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School.^[42][47]
• Spaulding Rehabilitation — regional rehabilitation network; flagship hospital in Charlestown, Boston provides inpatient rehabilitation and is part of a system of inpatient, outpatient, and long-term acute care sites across eastern Massachusetts.^[42][48][49]

• 
  Massachusetts Eye and Ear
• 
  McLean Hospital
• 
  Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital

Community hospitals

• Brigham and Women's Faulkner Hospital — community teaching hospital in the Jamaica Plain section of Boston (1153 Centre St.); offers medical, surgical, psychiatric, emergency, and diagnostic services.^[42][50]
• Newton-Wellesley Hospital — comprehensive community medical center serving Boston's western suburbs, located in Newton; provides a broad range of inpatient and outpatient services.^[42][51]
• Salem Hospital — the largest health care provider on the North Shore, located in Salem; offers comprehensive medical and surgical care with clinical collaborations with Massachusetts General Hospital.^[42][52]
• Cooley Dickinson Hospital — acute care community hospital in Northampton with associated VNA & Hospice and outpatient practices.^[42][53]
• Wentworth-Douglass Hospital — community hospital in Dover serving the Seacoast region of New Hampshire, with direct links to Massachusetts General Hospital specialty care.^[42][54][55]
• Martha's Vineyard Hospital — critical access community hospital in Oak Bluffs, serving Martha's Vineyard; provides on-island care and coordinated access to MGH specialists.^[42][56]
• Nantucket Cottage Hospital — island community hospital in Nantucket providing a broad range of services to residents and visitors, affiliated with Massachusetts General Hospital.^[42][57]

• 
  Newton-Wellesley Hospital
• 
  Faulkner Hospital, Jamaica Plain Massachusetts
• 
  Wentworth-Douglass Hospital

Other components

• Mass General Brigham Community Physicians — employed ambulatory practices providing primary and specialty care across eastern Massachusetts.^[42][58]
• Mass General Brigham Home Care — system-owned home health services (nursing, therapy, IV therapy, and related care), with regional VNA & Hospice affiliates.^[42][59][60]
• Mass General Brigham Health Plan — integrated payer formerly known as AllWays Health Partners; rebranded effective January 1, 2023.^[61][62]
• Mass General Brigham Urgent Care — walk-in centers for non-life-threatening illness and injury; treats adults and children ages 3+ and connects patients into the broader MGB network.^[63]
• MGH Institute of Health Professions — graduate school for health professions affiliated with the system.^[42]

Education and training

Mass General Brigham (MGB) is a teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School (HMS) and maintains an affiliation with the MGH Institute of Health Professions (MGH IHP). Member hospitals (including Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women's Hospital) sponsor residency and fellowship programs; news coverage in 2025 placed the number of physicians-in-training at roughly 2,600 across the system.^{[64][65][66][67]} HMS medical students complete required and elective clinical rotations at MGB hospitals.^[64]

Dedicated simulation and skills resources support team training, procedural practice, and assessment. Examples include the STRATUS Center for Medical Simulation at Brigham and Women's Hospital and the Massachusetts General Hospital Learning Laboratory, which reports offering about 800 simulation sessions annually across roughly 70 courses.^[68][69][70]

Continuing professional development is provided through the system's Office of Continuing Professional Development, which is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) and participates in the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) Maintenance of Certification program for continuing medical education activities.^[71][72]

Research training opportunities are available through university-affiliated consortia such as Harvard Catalyst and the Dana–Farber/Harvard Cancer Center.^[73][74]

Programs in nursing and allied health are offered through MGH IHP, which publishes degree requirements in areas such as Nursing, Physical therapy, Occupational therapy, Physician assistant studies, and Communication disorders.^[75] Information about recent developments in resident and fellow collective bargaining appears in Labor and employment.

Notable milestones

Institutions within Mass General Brigham (MGB) have been associated with a number of widely cited advances in medicine and public health, documented in independent secondary sources:

• 1846 – Public demonstration of surgical ether anesthesia. On 16 October 1846, a surgical team at Massachusetts General Hospital's Ether Dome publicly demonstrated painless surgery using diethyl ether, an event often credited with launching the anesthetic era in modern medicine.^[76][77]

  

  One of three daguerreotype views of an historic ether operation prosecuted at Mass. General Hospital on July 3, 1847

• 1910s–1920s – Outcome measurement ("end-result" idea). At MGH, surgeon Ernest Amory Codman advocated tracking every patient's outcome—a practice now regarded as foundational for outcomes research and hospital standardization.^[78][79]
• 1954–1962 – Early kidney transplantation. At the former Peter Bent Brigham Hospital (now Brigham and Women’s Hospital), a surgical team led by Joseph E. Murray performed the first successful human kidney transplant (between identical twins in 1954), later extending to non-identical and unrelated donors; Murray shared the 1990 Nobel Prize for this work.^[80][81][82]
• 1962 – First successful reattachment of a completely severed limb. A multidisciplinary team at MGH led by Ronald A. Malt reattached the upper arm of a 12-year-old patient after traumatic amputation—an early landmark in limb replantation.^[83][84][85]
• 1975 onward – Pioneering proton therapy for eye tumors. Teams from Massachusetts Eye and Ear and Harvard collaborators initiated clinical proton therapy for uveal melanoma at the Harvard Cyclotron Laboratory in 1975. This established an eye-sparing alternative to enucleation; MGH later transferred the program to the Francis H. Burr Proton Therapy Center (the first hospital-based facility), which began treating patients in 2001.^[86][87][88]
• 1992 – First demonstrations of human functional MRI (fMRI). Researchers at MGH demonstrated noninvasive imaging of human brain activity using endogenous blood-oxygen and flow contrast, foundational to modern fMRI.^[89][90]
• 1993 – Identification of the Huntington's disease gene. The Huntington's Disease Collaborative Research Group, with key contributions from MGH investigators, identified the CAG-repeat expansion in the HTT gene as the cause of Huntington's disease—enabling molecular diagnosis and facilitating further disease research.^[91][92]
• 2009 – Surgical Safety Checklist. A multicenter study led by Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard public health researchers, in collaboration with the World Health Organization, demonstrated that a simple Surgical Safety Checklist reduced complications and mortality—leading to global adoption of the checklist in perioperative care.^[93]
• 2011 – First full face transplant in the United States. A multidisciplinary team at Brigham and Women's Hospital performed the first full face transplant in the U.S., establishing protocols for vascularized composite allotransplantation and advancing reconstructive surgery.^[94]
• 1992–present – Boston Keratoprosthesis. Developed at Massachusetts Eye and Ear by Claes H. Dohlman and team, the Boston KPro received FDA clearance in 1992 and remains an important surgical option for corneal blindness, with improved outcomes in multi-center studies.^[95][96]
• 2024–2025 – Living-recipient pig-to-human kidney transplant. On 16 March 2024, MGH surgeons transplanted a genetically edited pig kidney into a living adult recipient—an international first in xenotransplantation. Early outcomes and immunologic monitoring (including a subsequent case) were published in The New England Journal of Medicine in 2025.^[97][98][99]

Governance

Mass General Brigham is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization governed by a central Board of Trustees and managed by a corporate executive team.^[100] The governance structure oversees the strategy and operations of the integrated healthcare system, including its academic medical centers, hospitals, and other entities.

Board of Trustees

The Board of Trustees holds the ultimate responsibility for the system's strategic direction, financial stability, and quality of patient care. The board is chaired by Scott Sperling, Co-Chief Executive Officer of Thomas H. Lee Partners. The Vice Chairs are John Fish, Chairman and CEO of Suffolk Construction, and Jonathan Kraft, President of The Kraft Group.^[101] The board's membership includes leaders from diverse fields such as finance, biotechnology, academia, law, and community leadership. Notable members include: Alan Garber, Provost of Harvard University; and Carmichael Roberts, Co-founder and Managing Partner of Material Impact.^[101] The system's President and CEO, Anne Klibanski, also serves as an ex officio member of the board.

Executive Leadership

The day-to-day operations of the system are managed by the executive leadership team, led by President and CEO Anne Klibanski, MD, who assumed the role in 2019.^[100] Dr. Klibanski and her team are responsible for implementing the board's strategy, integrating clinical services, advancing research and education, and managing the system's overall performance.

A neuroendocrinologist by training, Klibanski previously served as Mass General Brigham's Chief Academic Officer (2012–2019) and earlier as chief of the Neuroendocrine Unit at Massachusetts General Hospital. She is the Laurie Carrol Guthart Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and her research has focused on disorders of the pituitary gland and hypothalamus. Klibanski earned a bachelor's degree from Barnard College and an M.D. from the New York University Grossman School of Medicine.^{[102][103][104]}

In 2025, the compensation of President and CEO Anne Klibanski drew public attention and debate. IRS filings showed Klibanski received $8.4 million in total compensation for 2023, a 40% increase from the prior year; the board chair said the package reflected market benchmarking and performance and noted comparisons to large national health systems.^[105] Earlier reporting put Klibanski's 2022 compensation at more than $6 million, up 11.6% from 2021.^[106] In March 2025, groups of Mass General Brigham residents and physicians held pickets supporting proposed legislation that would cap hospital CEO pay at no more than 50 times an institution's lowest-paid worker; an MGB spokesperson said executive pay is set using third-party benchmarks for large not-for-profit systems.^[107]

Finances

Mass General Brigham (MGB) is a non-profit healthcare system with annual revenues that have exceeded $20 billion. Its financial performance is detailed in annual reports for the fiscal year ending on September 30.

Like many U.S. healthcare systems, MGB faced significant financial pressures following the COVID-19 pandemic, driven by labor shortages, high inflation, and constraints on patient discharge capacity. For fiscal year 2022, the system reported an operating loss of $432 million on $16.7 billion in revenue, resulting in a -2.6% operating margin.^[108]

Performance improved in fiscal year 2023, with the system narrowing its operating loss to $178 million on revenue of $18.8 billion.^[109] This trend continued into fiscal year 2024, when MGB returned to a positive operating margin. On systemwide operating revenue of $20.6 billion, MGB generated an operating income of $120 million (a 0.6% margin). The system attributed this recovery to higher patient acuity, growth in its specialty pharmacy program, and system-wide cost-containment efforts.^[110]

Beyond its operating results from patient care, the system's overall net income is heavily influenced by non-operating factors, particularly investment returns. In FY2024, strong investment gains helped produce a total net income of $1.2 billion.^[110] This contrasts with years like FY2022, when investment losses contributed to a significant overall net loss of nearly $2 billion.^[108]

Independent credit rating agencies have affirmed MGB's financial position. On Apr 25, 2025, Moody's Investors Service affirmed MGB's 'Aa3' bond rating with a stable outlook. Moody's cited the system's strong clinical reputation, prominent market position in the region, and robust research enterprise as key credit strengths, while noting the thin and volatile operating margins as a primary challenge.^[111]

Community benefit

As a tax-exempt health system, Mass General Brigham (MGB) reports community benefit activities that include financial assistance, subsidized health services, community health programs, and research and education with community impact. Massachusetts requires non-profit hospitals and HMOs to file annual Community Benefits reports with the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office (AGO) in addition to federal IRS Schedule H filings; statewide, hospitals reported roughly $1.0 billion in community benefits for fiscal year (FY) 2024, including $121 million in free and discounted care.^[112][113] MGB hospitals conduct a community health needs assessment (CHNA) at least every three years and develop Community Health Improvement Plans (CHIPs) to prioritize needs such as behavioral health, food insecurity, housing stability, and economic mobility.^[114][115]

Priorities and reporting

MGB's systemwide health equity strategy identifies investments in housing, mental health, economic mobility, and food insecurity, alongside community partnerships and policy advocacy.^[116] Individual hospital filings to the City of Boston for FY2024 list program categories and amounts such as support to community health centers, youth development, nutrition security, behavioral health access and workforce, chronic disease prevention (including medically tailored meals), and mobile screening and care.^{[117][118][119]}

Programs and investments

• Community Health Impact Funds (CHI/DoN). Through the Massachusetts Determination of Need process, the construction of Massachusetts General Hospital's Phillip and Susan Ragon Building triggered more than $62 million in Community Health Impact Funds—described as the largest DoN community investment in state history—to address housing, food insecurity, mental and behavioral health, and economic mobility over multiple years. Initial awards included $18 million to 22 organizations for affordable housing initiatives in Boston and North Suffolk (July 2024) and $6 million to 35 organizations for behavioral health and economic mobility programs (December 2024).^{[120][121][122]}
• Mobile health services. MGB operates Community Care Vans that offer mobile clinical services (for example, screening and treatment for hypertension and diabetes, vaccinations, and substance use disorder services) with regular schedules across Boston-area neighborhoods.^[123][124]
• Food and nutrition security. The system reports a "Food is Medicine" strategy that includes screening for food insecurity and referrals to community resources. MGB clinicians may enroll eligible patients in the Fresh Connect produce-prescription program administered by the Boston nonprofit About Fresh; participants receive prepaid cards redeemable for fruits and vegetables at participating retailers.^[125][126]
• Workforce development and economic mobility. MGB and its hospitals sponsor workforce pipelines (for example, Medical Assistant and Patient Care Technician training, internships, and youth scholar programs) and describe an "anchor" strategy to leverage hiring, purchasing, and investment in local communities.^{[127][128][129]}

Recent spending examples (Boston filings, FY2024)

• Massachusetts General Hospital reported $8.38 million in Boston community benefits across categories including support to community health centers ($3.94 million), youth programs ($2.79 million), nutrition security, chronic disease prevention, behavioral health access and workforce initiatives, and mobile care.^[117]
• Brigham and Women's Hospital reported $3.80 million, including youth development programs ($2.14 million), nutrition security, behavioral health access and workforce, chronic disease prevention, and mobile health services.^[118]
• Brigham and Women's Faulkner Hospital reported $695,000, including nutrition security, chronic disease prevention, elder health and domestic violence programming, and behavioral health access and workforce.^[119]

Health plan activities

MGB's licensed insurer, Mass General Brigham Health Plan, files its own Community Benefits report with the AGO and describes partnerships that target chronic disease, behavioral health, and health equity for members statewide.^[130][131]

Affiliations

MGB institutions participate in regional and national collaborations in education, research, and clinical care. The system is a principal teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School (HMS); major MGB hospitals—including Massachusetts General Hospital, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Massachusetts Eye and Ear, McLean Hospital, and Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital—are listed HMS affiliates.^[64][132]

• Oncology consortia. MGB institutions are members of the Dana–Farber/Harvard Cancer Center (DF/HCC), an NCI-designated comprehensive cancer center organized as a research consortium of seven Harvard-affiliated institutions.^[133][74] In September 2023, Dana–Farber Cancer Institute announced plans to shift future adult inpatient care to a new facility in collaboration with Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, with the long-standing Dana–Farber/Brigham clinical collaboration slated to wind down by 2028; regulatory approvals proceeded in 2025.^[134]
• Immunology and translational science. The Ragon Institute is a tri-institutional collaboration of Mass General Brigham, MIT, and Harvard University focused on harnessing the immune system to prevent and cure disease.^[135][136] MGB institutions also participate in the Harvard Catalyst Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) consortium supporting multi-site clinical research across Harvard-affiliated hospitals.^[137]
• Critical care transport. MGB hospitals are part of the Boston MedFlight consortium, a non-profit critical care transport service whose member medical centers include Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women's Hospital, among others.^[138]
• Burn and complex pediatric care collaborations. Shriners Children's Boston maintains affiliations with Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School and collaborates with MGB institutions on research and clinical programs, including the Boston–Harvard Burn Injury Model System with Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, Mass General, Brigham and Women's, and others.^[139][140]

• International partnerships. Through Mass General Brigham Global Advisory, the system engages in advisory collaborations with health providers worldwide on clinical service development, strategy, and quality improvement; MGB also coordinates care for international patients across its hospitals.^[141][142]

Legal and regulatory

Regulatory oversight and expansion

Mass General Brigham's expansion and market position have long drawn regulatory and public scrutiny. Reporting in the 2000s highlighted negotiated rate arrangements that raised statewide payment questions, and the system's proposed acquisitions of several community hospitals in the mid-2010s prompted a legal challenge and extensive public comment; in January 2015 a Suffolk Superior Court judge rejected a proposed consent judgment and Partners subsequently halted those acquisition plans.^[143] In 2017 the health system resolved a federal inquiry into certain research-lab practices with a $10 million agreement; prosecutors credited self-disclosure and remedial steps taken by the hospital.^[144] Following broader concerns about cost growth, the Massachusetts Health Policy Commission in January 2022 required Mass General Brigham to file the Commonwealth's first system-wide Performance Improvement Plan (PIP). The PIP and related monitoring focused on constraining spending growth; the HPC's December 2024 evaluation concluded the plan produced meaningful reductions in cost growth over the review period.^[145] Proposals to build new ambulatory centers in suburbs (for example, Westborough and Woburn) were withdrawn in 2022 after facing regulatory resistance and local opposition regarding cost and community impact.^[146]

Litigation

In April 2017, Partners HealthCare and Brigham and Women's Hospital agreed to pay $10 million to resolve allegations that a cardiac stem cell research laboratory obtained federal grants using manipulated or falsified data; prosecutors credited self-disclosure and remedial measures, and the settlement did not include an admission of liability.^[144][147]

In January 2022, Mass General Brigham and certain affiliates agreed to an $18.4 million class-action settlement resolving claims related to website cookies, pixels, and other tracking technologies; the settlement provided monetary relief and changes to web practices amid broader national litigation over tracking technologies at health-care sites.^[148][149]

In January 2023, a federal patent-infringement suit alleged that MGB's use of a diagnostic technology violated a third party's intellectual property; MGB disputed the claims. As of 2025, public filings do not indicate a reported final judgment.^[150]

Labor and employment

Mass General Brigham (MGB) has seen sustained labor activity since 2023 across trainees, physicians, home care staff, and hospital nursing units.

Unionization and collective bargaining

• Residents and fellows (CIR/SEIU). In June 2023, more than 2,300 resident physicians and clinical fellows across multiple MGB hospitals voted to unionize with the Committee of Interns and Residents (CIR). After roughly 18 months of bargaining, housestaff reached a tentative agreement in May 2025 and subsequently ratified a first contract covering about 2,600 physicians-in-training, including pay increases totaling 7.5% over the term, retroactive pay to July 1, 2024, and a wellness fund and due-process provisions.^{[151][152][66]}
• Attending physicians at Salem Hospital (AFSCME Council 93). In March 2024, 112 attending physicians at Salem Hospital voted to unionize, becoming the first attending-physician group at an MGB hospital to do so.^[153][154]
• Academic primary care physicians (Doctors Council SEIU). In May 2025, approximately 250 academic primary care physicians at Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women's Hospital voted 183–26 to unionize; certification matters remained pending before the National Labor Relations Board as of June 2025.^{[155][156][157]}
• Home care nurses and professionals (MNA). In June–July 2024, MGB Home Care nurses and other home-care professionals voted to unionize with the Massachusetts Nurses Association.^[158][159]
• Hospital nursing contracts. At Brigham and Women's Hospital, MNA-represented nurses authorized a strike in July 2024, reached a tentative agreement on August 9, and ratified a contract on September 10, 2024.^{[160][161][162]} At Brigham and Women's Faulkner Hospital, nurses announced a possible strike on September 12 and reached a tentative agreement on September 20, 2024.^{[163][164][165]}

Workforce reductions and outsourcing

In February 2018, then-Partners HealthCare said it would outsource roughly 100 medical coding and other back-office functions to India as part of a cost-reduction plan; affected employees were laid off and work was transitioned overseas.^[166][167]

In early 2025, MGB initiated the largest layoffs in its history as part of a multi-year restructuring. The first wave began the week of 10 February 2025; a second wave started the week of 10 March 2025.^[168][169] Leaders said the reductions would primarily target nonclinical management and administrative roles and were intended to close a projected budget shortfall over the next two years; additional actions included consolidating similar roles across sites and leaving some vacancies unfilled.^{[170][171][172]} Reporting during March indicated that up to roughly 1,500 positions system-wide could be affected out of a workforce of about 82,000.^[173][174]

While executives said bedside roles would be largely spared, coverage documented some patient-facing positions among those eliminated, including hospital chaplains, a counselor who led violence intervention programs, and a tobacco-treatment specialist, prompting public debate about the cuts' impact.^{[175][176][177]} Local examples included leadership and administrative reductions at affiliate hospitals such as Nantucket Cottage Hospital.^[178][179]

MGB said impacted employees received separation packages and redeployment support, and that the layoffs would conclude by March 2025; officials also stated that the restructuring was part of a broader plan to streamline operations across the system.^[180][181]

Pandemic-era compensation actions

During the initial phases of the COVID-19 pandemic, the system declined to offer hazard pay, drawing criticism from employee groups. In June 2020, Mass General Brigham announced temporary executive pay cuts (25% for top executives for one year) and broad wage and retirement freezes to avoid layoffs and furloughs; lower-wage employees were exempted. In 2021, the system provided $1,000 bonuses to most employees and said the freezes had been restored.^{[182][183][184][185]}

See also

• Partners Harvard Medical International
• Steward Health Care System