Archive for January 2016
CT Health Reform Dashboard redesign
Two years after the main Affordable Care Act expansions were implemented and almost six years after it became law, we’ve re-designed our CT Health Reform Dashboard to reflect the changing challenges and opportunities. Most of the 125 tasks and decision points in the original progress meter have been set in place. New opportunities to reform…
Read MoreBenefits of sponsoring out-of-state trips for policymakers
A new Health Affairs blog highlights the benefits of learning trips for state health policymakers working on systemic change. The author, President of New Jersey’s Nicholson Foundation, notes that out-of-state trips are very effective in fostering new perspectives on problems and finding innovative solutions. “The Nicholson Foundation is dedicated to addressing the complex needs of…
Read MoreArticle finds Medicaid managed care offers mixed results
Echoing CT’s experience, researchers writing in the Journal of Managed Care & Specialty Pharmacy found little evidence that states’ rush to move Medicaid members into risk-based commercial managed care plans has saved money or improved quality. Currently half of all Medicaid members nationally are enrolled in these plans. States moving to commercial managed care…
Read MoreRadiologists’ cuts discussed at Medicaid committee meeting
Friday’s MAPOC Complex Care Committee included a presentation on the cut to radiologists’ rates this last session. Representatives of the Radiological Society of Connecticut outlined the across-the-board cuts effective last April that dropped payments for interpreting images from 100% to 57.5% of Medicare rates, lower than rates paid by other states. The physicians are concerned…
Read MoreCEPAC coming to Connecticut – effectiveness of palliative care
The March meeting of CEPAC, New England’s comparative effectiveness council, will be in Hartford on the 31stat the Bushnell. CEPAC is an independent council of clinicians, academics and consumer advocates who take a deep dive into research around treatments for specific conditions, sorting out and voting on clinical effectiveness, but also which are worth the…
Read MoreHealth care not immune from gender wage gap, but the size depends on your job
American women workers make 82.5 cents for every dollar men do, according to 2014 data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. However that ratio varies considerably by industry from 91.3 in construction to 56.7 cents in legal positions. In health care support positions, women so better than average American women but still 87.9% of…
Read MoreCT Mirror reports on drop in per person Medicaid spending
Friday the CT Mirror reported on the remarkable falling cost of care for Medicaid members, down 5.9% just last year. The program now covers one in five state residents, more than any other government or private plan. Reasons include changing four years ago from a traditional insurer model to a single administrator, progress getting care…
Read MoreHealth care as economic driver in CT
CT By the Numbers is reporting on the CT Health Council’s campaign to highlight the importance of the health care industry in our state’s economy. The Council, a group of health care industry leaders, has installed a set of posters this month in the LOB to make the point. For example, CT’s health care sector…
Read MoreConsultants hired to study options for CT to improve value in health care purchasing
Bailit Health has been hired to work with the Healthcare Cabinet for a study to identify successful practices in other states and make recommendations to the General Assembly by Dec. 1st. Researchers will collect successful cost containment practices from other states and identify factors that are driving health care cost growth in CT. Recommendations will…
Read MoreHow CT can save $1 billion
Per person costs in CT’s Medicaid program fell, actually went down, by 5.9% last year. If the rest of CT’s state budget could match that performance, we would have a $1 billion surplus. Following is my list for how we could spend it (this was fun). · Reverse the HUSKY parents cut · Reverse the…
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