Posts by Ellen Andrews
Fascinating Health Care Cabinet meeting on hospital markets, concentration, costs and the magic of VT
This week’s Health Care Cabinet meeting was fascinating. We first heard about the impact of hospital consolidations in CT. We heard a moving story about a Spanish-speaking woman suffering a mild stroke who had to be airlifted from Windham to Hartford because since Hartford Hospital’s acquisition of Windham Hospital, there is no longer a neurologist…
Read MoreNew to the Book Club: Fighting for Life, by S. Josephine Baker, 1939
In the 1890s New York’s Lower East Side was the most densely populated square mile on the planet, with largely immigrant residents. A third of children born there died before their fifth birthday often due to epidemics of diarrhea, smallpox, typhus, child labor, poor sanitation, and other preventable conditions. But by 1911 the child death…
Read MoreGovernor’s budget proposal – it could be way worse
Today the Governor announced his proposed budget for the coming fiscal year that starts July 1st. The very, very good news is that Medicaid is largely untouched – no new cuts to providers, no more people losing coverage, and minimal service limits (orthodontia). This is smart because current reforms in the program are working to…
Read MoreTwo in three CT physicians had an electronic health record in 2014; well below US average
In 2014, only 67.5% of CT office-based physicians had a certified electronic health record (EHR) system according to a new CDC brief.Nationally 74.1% of office-based physicians had certified EHRs in 2014, up from 67.5% the year before. Only five other states had lower EHR participation levels. On the bright side, CT physicians who did have…
Read MoreFebruary web quiz: costs on CT’s health insurance exchange
Test your knowledge about costs of plans and MLRs on CT’s health insurance exchange. Take the February CT Health Policy Webquiz.
Read MoreCT 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…
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