Key members of the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts board that gave the nod to then-CEO Cleve Killingsworth's controversial $11 million severance have been public advocates for trimming soaring healthcare costs --- even as they sat on a panel that quietly approved the departing CEO's golden parachute. Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce President Paul Guzzi, for example, has crusaded to lower healthcare costs in his day job representing the interests of local businesses, many of which struggle under the burden of rising premiums for their employee health plans. "Advancing payment reform to bring health-care costs under control" is one of the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce's top policy agenda items, Guzzi said in a statement in January. Guzzi made $84,463 as the Blue Cross board chairman at the time of the Killingsworth vote.
