Posts by Ellen Andrews
Paid sick leave not a burden on CT businesses
Two years ago CT became the first state to require businesses with 50 or more employees to cover sick leave for workers. A new survey finds that, despite concerns, the policy has largely been a non-issue for CT businesses. The change in policy had little impact and little to no cost for companies but did…
Read MoreNational health spending remains low, enough to drop slightly as percent of GDP
In very good news, CMS actuaries have found that national spending on health care grew only 3.7% in 2012 – the fourth year of low growth and less than the rate of growth in the overall US economy at 4.6%. Per capita health spending grew by only 3%. The low rate caused the share of…
Read MoreCT’s insurance exchange price tag — $156.3 million
An analysis by the CT Health I-Team finds that setting up our state insurance exchange, AccessHealthCT, is costing $156.3 million – that is $460 for each uninsured state resident. The equivalent of 88 full time workers are involved in the massive undertaking. Most of that money is paying for consultants but salaries consume $14 million…
Read MoreNew, improved Facebook page
(How I spent my winter vacation.) Check out the new, improved (actually finally filled-in) CT Health Policy Project Facebook page – www.facebook.com/cthealthnotes. Like us for updates on CT health trends, policies, proposals, what’s working and what’s not.
Read MoreJanuary CT Health Policy Webquiz – how will CT’s uninsured fare under the ACA?
Test your knowledge of how CT’s uninsured will fare under the ACA. Take the January CT Health Policy Webquiz.
Read MoreCT Health reform dashboard – no movement from December
As the ACA’s individual mandate, exchange coverage and dozens of other provisions becomes effective this month, CT has only achieved 28.3% of necessary benchmarks for effective health care reform, according to this month’s CT Health Reform Dashboard. This is exactly where CT was last month. Uncertainty and a lack of protections in the SIM process…
Read MoreCSG/ERC annual meeting highlights
This year’s CSG/ERC annual meeting in Puerto Rico this month included several health panels and meetings. The first was an initial report on Value over Volume 2.0, an update on our first report from 2009 on payment reform for state/provincial/territorial policymakers with tools to both improve quality and control costs. An ACA Roundtable generated a…
Read MoreCEPAC meeting on dense breast tissue screening
This month’s CEPACmeeting focused on that status of comparative effectiveness research on supplemental cancer screening for women with dense breast tissue. 40% of women have dense tissue, both raising the risk of cancer and the chances that a lump will be masked on a routine mammogram. CT is the only state that both requires notification…
Read MoreSIM update
SIM leaders released their financial analysis, response to public comments, and revised vision statement at the last meeting. We will be providing a longer analysis when the final plan is available, but a few points bear highlighting. Despite strong public comments voicing concern about under-treatment incentives in shared savings, SIM leaders recommended not to include…
Read MoreSIM public comments: diverse and mostly critical
Last month Connecticut’s State Innovation Model (SIM) planning group, working for most of the year, solicited public comment for the first time. SIM is the administration’s plan, based on federal grant provisions, to radically transform Connecticut’s health system – payment and care delivery. The federal grant requires the plan to cover at least 80% of…
Read More