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Another Health Care Provider Suspends Board Members' Pay

WORCESTER (AP) - Massachusetts' fourth-largest health insurer has joined the state's largest nonprofit service provider in suspending pay for its board of directors.
 
Fallon Community Health Plan announced on Friday that its directors have voluntarily suspended their compensation effectively immediately.
 
Spokeswoman Christine Cassidy says Fallon's directors compensation is the "most modest among Massachusetts-based insurance carriers," averaging between $13,900 and $23,425 annually in 2010.
 
The boards for Tufts Health Care Plan and Harvard Pilgrim will meet later this month to discuss whether to follow the advice of Attorney General Martha Coakley and stop taking five-figure annual payments.
 
That announcement came after Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts said it will suspend payments to its directors at least through this year, and consider changing its legal structure.
 
Coakley called Fallon's decision "a positive first step" and urged Tufts and Harvard Pilgrim to follow suit.

(© Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

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