Posts by Ellen Andrews
Medicaid update – administrative conversion drives up call wait times
Friday’s Medicaid oversight council meeting focused on DSS’s conversion to ImpactCT, a new IT system to handle eligibility and enrollment. The hope is that moving more administrative functions online will streamline the process and reduce errors. Unfortunately, implementing the system is pulling staff away from their desks for 9 days of training, causing a sharp…
Read MoreCT insurers’ 2018 rate requests as much as 52% increase — public hearing, comment
As part of the health insurance rate review process, CT’s Insurance Department will hold a public hearing June 14th in Hartford on insurers’ double-digit rate requests for next year. In the morning, the hearing will address Anthem’s requests averaging 33.8% increases and affecting 35,000 policyholders. In the afternoon, the hearing will consider ConnectiCare’s average 17.5%…
Read MoreJune CT Health Reform Dashboard – concerns remain but some hope for drug costs
CT’s June Health Reform Dashboard remains unsettled. Mistrust remains at the core of problems in CT. The new state HIT environmental scan mentions the need for trust a dozen times. Medicaid policy development and implementation remains mired in mistrust, rushing ahead without data, and a lack of transparency. The state budget remains dreary and signals…
Read MoreMD drug anti-gouging bill passes into law, CT Senate passes drug benefits fairness bill
On Friday, a Maryland billto control generic drug prices passed into law without the Governor’s signature. Maryland’s Attorney General Frosh championed this first-in-the-nation anti-gouging bill. The issue was raised in response to extreme price increases in older drugs such as EpiPen, naloxone, and Daraprim. The bill requires Maryland’s Medicaid program to notify the Attorney General…
Read MoreCBO estimates that AHCA would cause 23 million more uninsured in ten years
In more federal health news, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office released their analysis of the impact of the House’s American Health Care Act yesterday. CBO predicts that 23 million more Americans would lose health coverage in the next decade, 14 million just next year, if the AHCA becomes law. The law would reduce the federal…
Read MorePresident’s budget proposal includes large cuts to state Medicaid funding, among other health programs
President Trump’s FY 2018 budget proposalincludes $610 billion in mandatory savings over the next decade by instituting state Medicaid block grants or per capita caps starting in FY 2020. This goes beyond cuts included in the American Health Care Act passed by the House of Representatives three weeks ago, that is estimated to cost Connecticut…
Read MoreAlert: CMS seeking public comment on new informed consent payment proposal
Some good news — th. Click here for more info, links to the proposed rule and the measure specifics, a customizable template for comments, and directions on how to submit comments. There is an exciting new opportunity to support patient-centered care and make a meaningful impact on the quality of care in hospitals across the…
Read MoreHealth care has highest job opening rate in US
At 5.2% in March, the health care and social assistance sector had the highest rate of job openings in the US labor market, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. However the rate of hiring in health care and social assistance was only average. At 19.3 million the health care and social assistance sector had…
Read More2016 estimate finds CT uninsured rates going down
Early estimates of health coverage finds that 3.9% of CT residents were uninsured last year, well below the US average of 9%, according to the CDC’s National Health Interview Survey. CT’s uninsured rate fell by 7.2% between 2013 and 2016, very close to the national 8.0% drop. Last year 41.6% of state residents had public…
Read MoreNew state health comparison tool shows challenges and opportunities for CT
In good news, CT is 11th best among states in the number of people who had no trouble finding a doctor in 2015 according to State Health Compare. But CT is also 17th worst among states in the percent of residents with high medical cost burdens. Depending on how you look at it, it may…
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