The Empire strikes back.

BI-Deaconess’ CEO Paul Levy points out that Partners Healthcare has taken out full-page ads in the Boston Globe rebutting the investigative story exposing their disproportionally higher payments.

Or, as Mr. Levy jokes, “the Boston Globe Spotlight team . . . has managed to become a profit center for the newspaper, rather than a cost center.”

I agree with all of the points regarding to lack of substantial quality differences between MGH and the Brigham versus Boston’s competing medical centers.

However, I also continue to stress that Partners should not be penalized for smart business strategy, something that even Mr. Levy concedes: “Who can quarrel with this business model, envisioned at the creation of Partners years ago and executed superbly?”

He dismisses the US News hospital rankings, but unfortunately, “quality as portrayed by a magazine” is what resonates with patients.

BI-Deaconess is doing an admirable job in transparency, as well as admission of medical errors (see today’s NY Times’ video op-ed), but those US News rankings hold sway with the public.

As long as that continues to be the case, Partners will continue to dominate Boston’s medical marketplace.

topics: partners, levy