Posts by Ellen Andrews
CTNJ Analysis: Good News on Healthcare Costs, But It Won’t Last
Tuesday’s eagerly anticipated inflation report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics had good news for our battered economy – inflation is down for the fifth month in a row. But the counter-intuitive part is that prices for medical care helped lower inflation. I rarely get to report good news on healthcare costs. Of course, there…
Read MoreCTNJ op-ed: Health insurance affordability review is good, but it’s no silver bullet
A movement to include affordability in the Insurance Department’s review of health insurance premiums is gaining champions. That’s a good thing. The best care is useless if you can’t afford it. Holding insurers accountable for lowering costs is important, but it’s not going to solve everything. We need to do much more to get costs…
Read MoreNo evidence to justify increases for 7 of top 10 most costly drugs
The latest Unsupported Price Increase report from the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review finds that, last year, seven of the ten most costly drugs in the US that raised net prices well over the rate of general inflation, had no new clinical evidence of effectiveness to justify the increases. The increases on just these…
Read MoreCT healthcare quality just average, and not improving
The latest federal National Healthcare Quality and Disparities Report from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality is not flattering for Connecticut. Across 159 measures of quality, Connecticut was above the US average on 39, below average on 38, and average for the remaining 82. In worse news, we aren’t getting any better. Compared with…
Read MoreCT gets a C+ for maternal and child health
The new 2022 March of Dimes Report Card gives Connecticut just average marks on how well we care for new moms and babies. Preterm births happen before 37 weeks of gestation; 40 weeks is typical. While that’s not good, it’s better than the US grade of D+ at 10.5% preterm births. Massachusetts and New Jersey…
Read MoreCT’s best healthcare secret — CID’s Consumer Report Card
It may not attract the same enthusiasm as other holidays this time of year, but if you’re shopping for health insurance during this Open Enrollment season, you need this resource. As a health policy researcher, there are few better sources of information on how insurers are performing. The Consumer Report Card on Health Insurance Carriers…
Read MoreCT hospitals’ charity care varied widely last year, a bit more than US
Last year, uncompensated care at Connecticut’s 27 acute care hospitals averaged 1.8% of total expenses, according to the state’s latest report. However, that rate varied from 4.2% at Norwalk Hospital to 0.5% at CT Children’s. Uncompensated care is services provided that hospitals are not paid for. It includes charity care, which hospitals forgive from the…
Read MoreNew affordable coverage toolkit to help people enroll
There were 184,000 uninsured Connecticut residents last year. To help people find affordable, even no-cost, coverage, the CT Health Foundation has developed a user-friendly toolkit to help people enroll. Enhanced federal subsidies and the state Covered CT program are making good insurance coverage more affordable than ever, including no-cost options for many. Open enrollment in…
Read MoreMental health workforce swamped by need, what needs to happen
A few recent reports have raised alarms about whether our healthy system’s mental health capacity can meet the need, and what we can do about it. The need is great. A mid-September Household Pulse Census survey found that 361,729 Connecticut residents reported feeling anxiety nearly every day and 219,164 reported depressive thoughts nearly every day.…
Read MoreCT hospital readmission penalties higher than US, again
Even with an eased formula due to COVID, all but one acute care Connecticut hospital will be penalized by Medicare next year for higher-than-expected readmission rates. Next year, Connecticut hospitals will be docked by 0.456% on their Medicare payments, higher than the US average of 0.428%. Average Connecticut hospital readmission penalties have been higher than…
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