HEALTH CARE

Neighborhood Health to shrink Medicaid membership

After ringing up more than $300 million in operating losses in the past three years, Neighborhood Health is making a major shift. The Somerville-based company is shrinking its Medicaid membership and pushing aggressively into the more lucrative business of selling health insurance to employers. Of Neighborhood’s more than 435,000 members last year, 65 percent were on Medicaid. For the first time, the company, owned by the large health network Partners HealthCare, is saying it wants to cut that ratio to less than half, and expand so that commercial business accounts for the bulk of its revenue. Executives say changes are necessary to restore financial stability as the company tries to navigate the tumultuous health care market. The new strategy underscores the financial challenges many organizations face in serving the poor and is a precursor of bigger changes to come next year when the state restructures the Medicaid program — known here as MassHealth — into new networks that will be charged with managing the care of their patients. MassHealth is a joint state-federal funded program, covering about 1.9 million Massachusetts residents. — PRIYANKA DAYAL MCCLUSKEY

HEALTH CARE

Spaulding receives $10m gift, largest in its history

Spaulding Rehabilitation Network, whose flagship hospital in Charlestown helped dozens of Boston Marathon bombing survivors recover from their ­catastrophic injuries, has received a $10 million gift, the largest in its history, to create a new research institute. It will fund the study of treatments for traumatic brain injuries, strokes, burns, spinal cord injuries, and other debilitating conditions. It will also create the Scott Schoen and Nancy Adams Discovery Center for Recovery from Chronic Pain, which will explore new ways for patients to manage chronic pain without opioids, with the goal of reducing prescription painkiller addiction. The donation by Schoen, 58, and Adams, 51 (above), who live in Chestnut Hill, will also be used to expand Spaulding’s research on concussions, which are now the ­leading cause of disability in children and adolescents in the United States. Schoen, who chairs Spaulding’s board of ­trustees, spent 25 years at the Boston private equity firm Thomas H. Lee Partners, from 1986 to 2011, and is now chief executive of Baylon Capital Management, a private ­investment partnership in Boston. The research institute will be led by Spaulding’s senior vice president, Dr. Ross Zafonte, who chairs the department of physical medicine and rehabilitation at Harvard Medical School. — SACHA PFEIFFER

HEALTH CARE

New England Baptist to join Beth Israel Deaconess, Lahey

The big merger of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Lahey Health is getting even bigger. New England Baptist Hospital said Thursday that it agreed to join the two health systems as they plan a combination to challenge Partners HealthCare, the state’s largest health network. Mount Auburn Hospital in Cambridge also might take part in the deal. Beth Israel Deaconess and Lahey disclosed in January that they would merge under a new parent company. With the Baptist and Mount Auburn, the organization would include 10 ­hospitals generating more than $5 billion in annual revenue. The new group would be the second-largest health system in the state, behind Partners, which has 10 hospitals in Massachusetts, one in New Hampshire, and more than $12 billion in revenue. The deal, which still needs state and federal approvals, would be the biggest among ­hospitals in the state since Massachusetts General and Brigham and Women’s joined to create Partners in 1994. ­Located atop Boston’s Mission Hill, the Baptist is independently run and specializes in the care of joints and muscles. It has a clinical affiliation with Beth Israel Deaconess and is part of that hospital’s contracting network, which negotiates with insurers. Given that relationship, Baptist president Trish Hannon said it’s “natural’’ for the Baptist to join the merger. — PRIYANKA DAYAL MCCLUSKEY

ADVERTISING

Healey cracks down on digital ads targeting women near reproductive clinics

The digital ads from antiabortion groups appeared on the smartphones of young women who were near reproductive health clinics. “You Have Choices,’’ one message said. Others offered “Pregnancy Help,’’ and assured recipients, “You’re Not Alone,’’ according to Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey, who announced Tuesday a legal action that alleged the ads illegally used consumer health data. A settlement reached with Healey’s office preemptively bars the company that devised the marketing campaign, Boston-based Copley Advertising, from sending such messages. It says the company cannot use location data about people who are near a Massachusetts health care facility to send them advertisements based on a medical condition. The agreement raised First Amendment concerns among some observers and also drew attention to the fairly common ability of advertisers to use smartphone data to track locations and infer personal details about cellphone owners. In this case, Copley Advertising used a technique known as “geofencing’’ that aims messages at cellphone users inside a certain geographic area. Those ads specifically targeted young women at or near reproductive health clinics, Healey said. Copley hasn’t run such ads in Massachusetts, but Healey said the practice essentially used confidential medical information to target people without their consent and had to be headed off. Copley Advertising, a one-person firm founded in 2015, said in a statement that it hadn’t broken any laws and believed the campaign was protected by the First Amendment. — CURT WOODWARD AND HIAWATHA BRAY

RIDE HAILING

More than 8,000 drivers for Uber, Lyft sidelined after failing background checks

More than 8,000 drivers for ride-hailing companies such as Uber and Lyft­ have been pulled off Massachusetts roads after failing a new state background check, for infractions that range from license suspensions to violent crimes and sexual offenses, according to records released Wednesday. The state reviewed the criminal and driving records of nearly 71,000 drivers who had already passed reviews by the companies and rejected 8,206 — about 11 percent. Hundreds were disqualified for having serious crimes on their record, including violent or sexual offenses, and others for driving-related offenses, such as drunken driving or reckless driving, according to the state Department of Public Utilities. The agency said it rejected 51 applications from sex offenders and 352 for incidents related to “Sex, Abuse, and Exploitation.’’ The new state system, which began checking records in January, rejected many drivers who had first passed the companies’ own reviews. The results prompted concerns about passenger safety, especially because some of the rejected drivers might have been on the roads for years. Barring a successful appeal, rejected applicants can’t drive for a ride-hailing operation. Regulations authorized by the Legislature in 2016 are some of the strictest for ride-hailing drivers in the nation. The state looks back seven years for violations such as reckless driving, license suspensions, and less serious violent crimes. But it looks back for unlimited periods at other offenses, such as sex crimes, more serious violent crimes, and drunken driving that results in serious injury or death. Uber and Lyft each pointed out that they are limited by state law to checking just the last seven years of an applicant’s history, which they said explains why so many drivers they had passed ultimately flunked the government’s more thorough review. Lyft said only “a small percentage of our drivers failed,’’ while Uber added that the unlimited reach of the government’s background checks is unfair to drivers who are trying to overcome past troubles. — ADAM VACCARO AND DAN ADAMS