Posts by Ellen Andrews
Smoking bans slowly move to private clubs
The 2003 state law prohibiting smoking in restaurants and bars exempted private clubs. In 2007 the Supreme Court upheld the law in a challenge filed by a few bar owners. When the law passed, many believed that private clubs would become more popular as sanctuaries for smokers. However, according to yesterday’s Hartford Courant, a growing…
Read MoreMyths and truths in national health reform
There has been a lot of misinformation about the new national health reform bill and what it will mean for Connecticut. Rumors include 16,500 new armed IRS agents to enforce the individual mandate, Medicare cuts, skyrocketing premiums and budget deficits. We’ve collected twenty of them, some true and some false, from calls to CT’s Congressional…
Read MoreBHP initiative reduces hospital delay days by 22% in two years
At Wednesday’s Behavioral Health Partnership Oversight Council meeting, Value Options, DCF, DSS and eight hospitals announced remarkable progress in reducing the number of HUSKY children in discharge delay at hospitals, ready to leave but waiting for appropriate outpatient behavioral health care. The initiative aligned performance incentives across providers and administrators. During 2007, before the initiative,…
Read MoreHouse passes budget mitigation plan
Yesterday the House approved a plan to address the $371 million deficit in this year’s state budget. The Senate will vote on the plan today and the Governor is expected to sign it. The bill includes freezing subsidized enrollments in the Charter Oak program at the end of this month; consumers paying full cost will…
Read MoreFoundation working to get health reform truth out
The Universal Health Care Foundation of CT announced yesterday a public awareness campaign to help people in CT understand the benefits of national and state health care reforms and to counter substantial misinformation efforts by opponents of reform. Speakers pointed out that 150 volunteers have been working for months researching and designing CT’s health system…
Read MoreeHealthCT wins federal grant for health IT training
This week eHealthConnecticut announced their application for $5.7 million in federal stimulus money was approved. The funding is to create a training center for CT health care providers implementing electronic health records. eHealthCT joins a network of sixty similar training centers across the nation. Electronic health records are a long overdue innovation in medicine that…
Read MoreMedicaid Managed Care Council update
Friday’s Council meeting was relatively uneventful. We started with a wonderful outreach video by CT’s Healthy Start programs describing the important work they do supporting at-risk pregnant women and connecting them to the care they need to ensure healthy births. (Advocates think it would be a good idea to start every Council meeting with babies…
Read MoreFederal health reform and CT small businesses seminar
The Universal Health Care Foundation of CT is hosting a free seminar for small businesses on national health care reform Monday, April 12th 7:45 to 9:30am in Meriden. A panel of experts will describe the new federal law and CT’s SustiNet plan and how they will impact small businesses in CT including how to get…
Read MoreHigh risk pools in federal health reform
Questions are surfacing about the federal reform bill’s provision to create a high risk pool will be implemented. The pool is meant to provide temporary coverage for people locked out of the insurance market until the bill’s pre-existing condition ban for adults becomes effective in 2014. People who need high risk pools include those timing…
Read MoreNew OLR report finds PCCM succeeds, saves money in other states
A new report by the legislative Office of Legislative Research outlines enrollment, savings and impact on hospital visits in states that have implemented Primary Care Case Management (PCCM). PCCM is a different way of running Medicaid managed care plans (HUSKY in CT) used in thirty states. PCCM does not involve HMOs, but rather rests on…
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