Greater Worcester

The Massachusetts Department of Public Health has deemed Saint Vincent Hospital back in compliance with staffing requirements, after an investigation found the Worcester hospital failed to maintain a mandatory nurse-to-patient ratio for an organ-donating patient back in April.

Charlie Carr, legislative liaison for the Disability Policy Consortium and a working group member, said the proposed savings reflect an effort to make limited reductions without undermining the core of the program.

A six-person conference committee is now fully in place and ready in the new year to begin hashing out final details of Massachusetts legislation overhauling cannabis laws.

The year-long battle over National Institutes of Health funding, which caused UMass Chan Medical School to lay off employees in April, reached a new milestone on Tuesday.

Facing a potentially crowded and costly 2026 ballot cycle, lawmakers advanced legislation to tighten disclosure rules for ballot question campaigns and reveal who’s funding them.

Asked how Massachusetts plans to deploy the new funds, a spokesperson for the Executive Office of Health and Human Services said state officials "just received the notice" and are reviewing it.

If the Cannabis Control Commission determines that a licensee has sold less than 70% of what the licensee produced during a review period, then the commission may reduce the licensee's maximum canopy to a lower tier, according to a CCC memo.

“This process proved the power of unity and standing together,” Todd Skirving, member of the PHPA executive committee, wrote on X.

UMass Memorial Health will absorb another hospital, and nine other predictions.

CCC was not placed into receivership, no hospital replaced Nashoba Valley Medical Center, and the results of eight other bold predictions for 2025.