Archive for July 2014
CT health reform progress dips to 28%
CT lost ground in progress toward health reform according to the August CT Health Reform Dashboard. The state moved backward to 28% completion mainly due to the new SIM/Medicaid plan that has drawn concerns from many stakeholders, less transparent policymaking, and concerns that a federal grant is driving health policy choices. Progress on patient-centered…
Read MoreNew SIM under service survey — please help protect consumers
The SIM Equity and Access Committee is working to develop a monitoring system for inappropriate underservice as CT’s health system moves toward shared savings payment models. Underservice can be denial of appropriate care, limiting expensive treatment options, limiting access to certain providers, avoidance of consumers that may not generate savings, or cost shifting to consumers.…
Read MorePublic forum tonight about St. Mary’s Hospital purchase and for-profit conversion
At 5pm tonight there will be a public forum at St. Mary’s Hospital’s Conference Center Auditorium about plans to sell the hospital to Tenet Healthcare Corp. Tenet is a for-profit hospital chain based in Dallas with hospitals and clinics in 16 states. Tenet plans to purchase five CT hospitals, including nearby Waterbury Hospital, and create…
Read MoreValue over Volume 2.0 – twenty three tools for state policymakers to improve quality and control costs
Health care costs consume nearly a quarter of state budgets, and that share is rising at a rate that policymakers agree is unsustainable. Evidence shows that our runaway spending is not driving improved quality, and that lasting reform will require a shift from a volume-based system to one based on value. The good news is…
Read More$3 million in ACA insurance rebates coming to CT residents
69,186 CT residents will soon receive $3 million in rebates from insurers that spent less than 80% (individual coverage) or 85% (large groups) of premiums on medical or quality improvement services last year. The rebates result from Medical Loss Ratio provisions in the ACA. CT’s total is down from $5.6 million in total refunds for…
Read MoreSIM application online
CT’s SIM application has been submitted and is online. An analysis will be coming soon.
Read MoreNew to Book Club – Think Like a Freak
The newest addition to the CT Health Policy Project Book Club, Think Like a Freak, offers tools to unlock creativity in problem solving, using new perspectives to solve intractable challenges – and health care has a lot of those. Freakonomics and SuperFreakomomics, earlier CT Health Policy Project Book Club selections, gave us interesting examples of…
Read MoreJune CT Health Policy Webquiz: CT health system performance
Test your knowledge about Connecticut’s health system performance. Take the July CT Health Policy Webquiz.
Read MoreCMS announces new assistance for states to improve health system, many SIM alternatives
Today CMS unveiled the Innovation Accelerator Program providing states with over 50 tools, programs and technical assistance to improve Medicaid programs – both delivery and payment reforms. SIM is only one of the dozens of tools listed. The tools include numerous alternatives to CT’s risky SIM proposal to achieve every one of the goals outlined…
Read MoreSIM moving ahead with risky Medicaid plan despite 25 advocates’ objections
At yesterday’s meeting, the SIM steering committee chose to move ahead with plans to radically change the Medicaid program – to include shared savings and an 1115 waiver. The new plan, rushed out in only a few weeks, reverses earlier assurances to advocates that the state would go slowly into shared savings payment incentives, recognizing…
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