Home Editor's Choice PBN health care summit: Multifaceted approach needed to repair R.I.’s ailing system

PBN health care summit: Multifaceted approach needed to repair R.I.’s ailing system

By

Jacquelyn Voghel

-

04/02/2026

DR. CHRISTOPHER OTTIANO, second from left, interim chief medical officer and medical director at Neighborhood Health Plan of Rhode Island, speaks during one of two panel discussions during Providence Business News' Health Care Summit at Marriott Providence on Thursday. Also on the panel are, from left, Joseph Trunzo, associate director of Bryant University's School of Health and Behavioral Sciences; Linda Hurley, CODAC Inc. CEO and president; and Meghan Grady, Meals on Wheels of RI Inc. executive director. / PBN PHOTO/MIKE SKORSKI

PROVIDENCE – When primary care providers choose to practice in Massachusetts or Connecticut over Rhode Island, it’s not about luxury. Across the board, the Ocean State lags its neighboring states by about 20% in reimbursement rates across medical services. And in the smallest state in the U.S., that translates to health care professionals – including

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PROVIDENCE – When primary care providers choose to practice in Massachusetts or Connecticut over Rhode Island, it’s not about luxury. Across the board, the Ocean State lags its neighboring states by about 20% in reimbursement rates across medical services. And in the smallest state in the U.S., that translates to health care professionals – including many direly needed primary care providers – driving across state lines for better pay and improved quality of life. “This isn’t the difference between having a beach house and not having a beach house,” said Joseph Trunzo, associate director of the School of Health and Behavioral Sciences at Bryant University. “This is the difference between being able to feed and support your family and not being able to feed and support your family.” Linda Hurley, CEO and president at CODAC Inc., echoed this idea. “That is the real issue ... It is primarily about the rates,” said Hurley, the leader of the behavioral health nonprofit. “It’s about the dollars. It’s about being able to reimburse people to have a full and healthy family life.” Trunzo and Hurley spoke at Providence Business News’ spring 2026 Health Care Summit, which took place Thursday morning at the Providence Marriott Downtown. The event featured two panel discussions, with the first including Dr. Ana Tuya Fulton, chief population health officer at Care New England Health System; state Sen. Pamela Lauria, D-Bristol, who is also a nurse practitioner; and Dr. Raj Hazarika, vice president and chief medical officer of commercial products at Harvard Pilgrim Health Care of New England Inc. A second panel featured Meghan Grady, executive director of Meals on Wheels of RI Inc.; and Dr. Christopher Ottiano, interim chief medical officer and medical director at Neighborhood Health Plan of Rhode Island; as well as Trunzo and Hurley. Panelists discussed a broad range of forces impacting providers and patients in Rhode Island, such as workforce shortages, federal changes to insurance policies and the recent purchase of Roger Williams Medical Center and Our Lady of Fatima Hospital by the nonprofit Centurion Foundation. To address the state’s dire shortage of primary care providers, some panelists highlighted their support for a proposed medical school at the University of Rhode Island. People who go to college or university in their home state are much more likely to stay after graduation, Lauria said, evidenced in a phenomenon known as the “sticky effect.” Currently, the only in-state option for aspiring physicians is Brown University’s Warren Alpert Medical School. But the state also needs to support students in paying for that education. “I would like to see more creative programs where you don’t have to force the students to take on debt,” Trunzo said. One possibility is establishing more scholarships, he noted, potentially with conditions such as requiring recipients to practice within the state for a few years after graduation. “They feel hopefully a debt of gratitude to the state for supporting their education,” Trunzo said, “and hopefully they stay.” A need for scholarship funding recently intensified when the federal government reclassified numerous health care professions as not “professional” degrees, which cut off students from some previous funding resources. It’s one of many jolts to hit the state under policies instituted by President Donald Trump's administration. More than 10,000 Rhode Islanders recently lost coverage through HealthSource RI, the state’s health insurance marketplace, and more will follow if anticipated cuts to Medicaid and Medicare go into effect in the fall. Fulton agreed that a second medical school would be beneficial, but added that this resource – if it comes to fruition – remains years down the road. Patients and providers can’t wait that long, she said. “We have a lot of good medium to long-term solutions that are being discussed in the state, and I’m so thankful for that,” Fulton said, “like the medical school, the scholarships. All those things are going to help us. But those are medium to long term. We need some short-term solutions.” The state can start leveraging technology now to relieve primary care physicians of non-clinical burdens such as paperwork, Fulton said. Team-based approaches involving multiple health care professionals, from doctors and nurses to pharmacists, can also help providers with heavy patient loads, Fulton said. Amid an already limited supply of primary care practitioners, burnout is also driving more providers to concierge practices, Lauria said. These practices, which require patients to pay a membership fee, come with lighter patient loads that help overburdened providers, but are less accessible to lower-income patients. The state needs to find solutions that can benefit both patients and providers at the same time, panelists said. Though panelists’ views on how significantly artificial intelligence can replace direct interactions between providers and patients, they agreed that the human element of health care will remain essential. But having providers who are available and equipped to have these interactions, they also noted, comes down to another cold reality. “We need a system that works,” Hurley said. “Again, it comes down to money. People need to make money.” Jacquelyn Voghel is a PBN staff writer. You may reach her at Voghel@PBN.com.