Health law benefits some MA hospitals, penalizes others

Steward Health Care System, which ­includes struggling Carney Hospital, will not qualify for millions of dollars in special payments under the new Massachusetts healthcare law, because legislators said they did not want to subsidize a for-profit company. The provision is one of several buried in the 350-page bill that penalize or benefit certain hospitals. The cost-control law also targets three Harvard-­affiliated hospital systems—Partners HealthCare, Boston Children's Hospital, and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center—to pay a one-time $60 million tax to fund health programs. Legislators rewarded three small hospitals considered too isolated or too specialized to fail: Athol Memorial, Fairview in Great ­Barrington, and Franciscan Hospital for ­Children in Boston will get boosts in Medicaid payments.