Ballot initiative

Health care officials try to hammer out deal with union

Hospital industry executives are negotiating a deal with a major union for health care workers to stave off a November ballot question that could cost some of the state’s most prominent medical institutions hundreds of millions of dollars a year. At issue is a proposed ballot initiative by the Service Employees International Union, Local 1199, that would dramatically change the way health care is financed, taking money from hospitals that are paid higher rates and giving the money to lower-paid hospitals, and to consumers through their insurance companies. Backers say the ballot initiative could eventually lower health care premiums for some consumers and shore up struggling community hospitals. It is largely aimed at Partners HealthCare, the state’s highest-paid health care provider, which would lose $440 million a year if voters were to approve the ballot question, according to the SEIU. The parent company of Massachusetts General and Brigham and Women’s and eight other hospitals, Partners warns that the initiative could force it to cut thousands of jobs. The SEIU has already collected more than the 64,750 signatures required to clear a key hurdle in the state’s ballot process, and has until July 6 to submit another 10,000 signatures it needs to get the question on the statewide ballot. But union leaders have also indicated they would drop their campaign if they can agree with the hospital industry on an alternative to the ballot initiative.

Food Service

Application to bring Starbucks to South Boston denied

Boston’s licensing board unanimously rejected an application for a proposed Starbucks location in South Boston that had drawn bitter opposition. The three-member board rejected the license sought by developer Michael Norton, who wanted to bring the Seattle-based coffee chain to the corner of L Street and East Broadway. The proposal was opposed by several South Boston independent business owners and residents, who argued that opening a Starbucks at 749 East Broadway could spell the beginning of the end for the independent shops that line both sides of the street and are integral to Southie’s identity. Mayor Martin J. Walsh’s office said on Tuesday that it opposed the Starbucks due to inadequate support in the neighborhood. Norton has already won zoning approval for a restaurant in that space. He bought the corner lot in 2011, tore down an older building there, and replaced it with a three-story structure, with two rental apartments upstairs and the restaurant space at street level.

Pharmaceuticals

Biogen will spin off hemophilia drug franchise

When drug maker Biogen Inc. shed 880 jobs last October, citing slower growth of its industry-leading multiple sclerosis medicines, analysts pondered whether the Cambridge biotech would make a dramatic move to reshape the company for a new era. They got an emphatic answer Tuesday when Biogen disclosed plans to spin off its growing hemophilia drug franchise, which sells two drugs to treat the bleeding disorder, as a separate publicly traded company. In essence, Biogen — the state’s largest public company, with a market value of nearly $60 billion — will split itself into two independent businesses. The move will enable Biogen to focus on its core MS portfolio while it tries to build a new pipeline of treatments for neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, spinal muscular atrophy, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.

Customer reviews

Top-rated restaurant wants to be dropped from TripAdvisor

Al Ballard and his wife, Linda, own a homespun restaurant in their sprawling Victorian in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, but the couple has a Massachusetts-based problem. For more than a year, they have tried — and failed — to get their restaurant removed from TripAdvisor, the popular Needham-based online rating company. Bad rating? Not at all. The Colorado restaurant scores five stars on the site. But Ballard said he feels captive to the effort it takes to monitor his reputation on TripAdvisor. “We just don’t want to be a part of it, but we can’t get away from them,’’ said Ballard, 70. “And the truth of the matter is no one can get away from them.’’ The Wild West nature of online review sites like TripAdvisor has led to a backlash from businesses in Massachusetts and across the country that have quietly filed complaints against the company and other sites with the Better Business Bureau and the attorney general. Some business owners, like the Ballards, want to be removed from the site. Some just don’t like what they’ve read about their business, or find it unfair. TripAdvisor spokesman Kevin Carter said the company does not remove listings of any establishment open for businesses. No matter how disgruntled an owner might be over complaints about a rude staffer or tacky furnishings, it’s typically there to stay.

Biotechnology

Bind Therapeutics files for bankruptcy

Financially pressed Bind Therapeutics Inc. said Monday it has filed for federal bankruptcy protection after the breakdown of talks to restructure its debt, a rare misstep for one of the many Cambridge biotechs spawned by Kendall Square giant Robert Langer. Bind last month said it was slashing its workforce by 38 percent and seeking a partner to help develop its lead cancer drug. It will continue operating with 61 employees as it reorganizes under Chapter 11 of the US bankruptcy code, said chief executive Andrew Hirsch. Hirsch, who took over that position last year, said Bind’s bankruptcy filing was precipitated by an April 26 notice from lender Hercules Capital, a Palo Alto, Calif., venture debt firm that demanded payment in full of the $13.2 million balance on its loan, along with $1.2 million in fees.

Export

Sweden proposes ban on live US lobsters

The peace-loving nation of Sweden, a country that remained neutral through World War II and brought Volvos­ and Ikea meatballs to the masses, has launched a bitter attack on New England’s lobster industry. Swedish government officials have proposed banning the sale of live US lobsters in the European Union and designating them as an invasive alien species, citing concerns about diseases that US experts contend are rare. The simmering dispute prompted a New England congressional delegation to appeal to the Obama administration to intervene. The lobsters that live off the west coast of Sweden, a species known as Homarus gammarus, are close cousins to the North American lobster, with six legs and two claws that taste delicious with a brush of melted butter. Swedish lobsters are mainly distinguished by their price, costing two to three times more than the price of their New England counterparts. The result: Swedish lobsters are typically served in pricey restaurants or on special occasions. Those side-of-the-road shacks and plastic bibs that we associate with the Maine coast? They’re tough to come by near the coastal fjords.