Posts by Ellen Andrews
SIM 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…
Read MoreMedicaid Council voices concerns about new SIM proposal
In a special meeting yesterday, the majority of Medicaid Council members voiced concerns about the rushed, new SIM proposal for Medicaid. Legislators compared the new proposal to the failed HUSKY HMO proposal 20 years ago and made it clear that they are concerned about “going back down that road”. Concerns included the application’s aggressive pace of…
Read MoreQuestions for SIM about radical new Medicaid proposal
Questions sent yesterday for today’s meeting about SIM’s risky, new Medicaid proposal have been posted. One asks why a dangerous 1115 waiver is necessary? Did SIM planners explore other, less dangerous options? 1115 waivers necessarily include a cap on federal reimbursement (to meet the federal budget neutrality requirement) endangering the state budget and potential future…
Read MoreSpecial Medicaid Council meeting on new SIM Medicaid plan
The very new SIM plan for Medicaid will be the subject of a special MAPOC meeting tomorrow July 8th at 9:30 in Room 2C of the LOB. Concerns have been raised about both the content and the process for this radical departure from the original SIM plan for CT’s largest health plan. We expect more…
Read MoreCT Health reform dashboard down – change in SIM/Medicaid plan largely responsible
CT’s Health Reform Progress Meter is down this month to 28.5%, mainly because of a new, rushed reversal on the original SIM plan to put Medicaid members’ care under financial risk, pursue a waiver that caps federal reimbursements putting the state budget and benefits in the state’s largest health plan at substantial risk, and a…
Read MoreCT News Junkie Op-Ed: SIM shouldn’t just chase a federal grant
A new Op-Ed in CT News Junkie outlines consumer advocate concerns that SIM planners are putting their pursuit of a federal grant ahead of what’s best for CT. Contrary to the original plan, SIM leaders are now planning to move Medicaid back to an incentive scheme similar to the failed HUSKY HMOs. Since we moved…
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