Posts by Ellen Andrews
Exchange tweaks for 2015 offerings – weak on affordability, expanded networks, HSAs
Changes for next year’s CT health insurance exchange plan offerings are small and unlikely to change premiums much. Cost sharing for the most affordable plans will be rising, with consumers paying more for services. Studies find that even modest increases in cost sharing lead consumers to reduce both necessary and unnecessary care, and can drive…
Read MoreNew to the CT Health Policy Book Club – Reinventing American Health Care
I received the newest addition to the CTHPP Book Club — Reinventing American Health Care: How the Affordable Care Act Will Improve our Terribly Complex, Blatantly Unjust, Outrageously Expensive, Grossly Inefficient, Error Prone System — when the author, Ezekiel Emanuel, came to an ICER boarddinner in Boston this spring. He spent the evening talking and…
Read MoreCHC quality conference: Reimagining primary care
Yesterday’s ninth annual Weitzman Institute conference on improving the quality of care did not disappoint. National and CHC, Inc. speakers touched on workforce and technology innovations to build primary care capacity and improve quality of care, engaging youth in coverage expansions, connecting medicine to community services to stop the expensive treadmill of treating preventable health…
Read MoreCabinet meeting – exchange and SIM updates
Most of today’s Cabinet meeting was spent on SIM’s decision to create a CT-specific medical home standard rather than using well-vetted, evidence based national standards. (May 29th we are hosting a webinar with NCQA to learn more about the NCQA system that has certified 1,009 PCMH providers in CT already. Register here.) Questions were raised…
Read MoreWebinar: The value of NCQA recognition of patient-centered medical homes
Join us for a webinar with National Committee for Quality Assurance experts Thursday, May 29th at 1pm to learn about their patient-centered medical home recognition standards updated for 2014. NCQA has the most widely adopted standards, with a growing list of 1,009 certified PCMHs in Connecticut. There is substantial evidence linking nationally recognized PCMHs with…
Read MoreHospital conversion bill passed, but outcome not clear
In the last hours of the session the General Assembly passed legislation regarding for-profit hospital conversions and hospitals’ ability to merge with physician practices. The legislation was proposed in response to Tenet’s plans to partner with Yale-New Haven, Waterbury, Manchester, Rockville, and Bristol hospitals. The deal required the ability of for-profits to purchase physician practices.…
Read MoreWebsite moving, be patient
Our CT Health Policy Project website is moving to a new home and will be temporarily offline. We expect to be back up with the information you are craving in 12 to 24 hours depending on how long the DNS propagation takes. I am told I have to be patient.
Read MoreMA health reform saved lives
A new study finds that health reform and expanded coverage in MA saved lives. Comparing MA counties with matched counties in other states, researchers found a drop in mortality, especially from causes amenable to health care (i.e. not due to accidents). A completely illegitimate, back-of-the-envelope, they’ll-take-my-degree-away calculation (is that enough disclaimers?) finds that 351 MA…
Read MoreState Employee health plan update
Today’s meeting of the Health Care Cost Containment Committee was short but interesting. The HCCC, the best kept secret in state government, is a joint labor-management committee under the Comptroller’s Office that makes decisions about the $1.2 billion/year program that covers 208,378 state employees, retirees and dependents. Consultants noted that costs in the program rose…
Read MoreCT hospitals safety rankings lower than surrounding states
New rankings of hospital safety by the Leapfrog Group outline sharp differences between CT’s hospitals. St. Francis and Backus earned an A grade. However Charlotte Hungerford received a D and Windham received an F. CT hospitals underperformed compared to surrounding states. MA and RI have no hospitals with D or F grades. 70% of MA…
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