Posts by Ellen Andrews
Health Care Cabinet tackles drug costs
At yesterday’s meeting, CT’s Health Care Cabinet agreed to create four working groups to develop recommendations and options to control drug spending in the state. We also reviewed a report from CT’s APCD on the Top 50 Highest Total Cost Drugs in CT. The Cabinet has been taking a deep dive into rising prescription drug…
Read MoreCT rates well among states in public health emergency preparation, but room for improvement
This year CT earned 7.3 points out of 10 possible in the latest assessment of preparedness for community health emergencies, a small increase from 7.2 over last year. But CT did better than the US average at 6.8. The National Health Security Preparedness Index has measured states’ ability to respond to health security threats such…
Read MoreMay CT Health Reform Dashboard – Medicaid U turn, federal relief premature
CT’s May Health Reform Dashboard is unsettled again. Mistrust remains at the core of problems in CT. Medicaid policy development and implementation have taken a very disappointing turn away from collaboration, transparency, and data for reasons that don’t make any sense (there are a few theories). Just a few of the persistent problems in PCMH+,…
Read MoreCT health prices higher than US average and growing faster
Health care prices in Connecticut are higher and rising more quickly than the US average, according to the Healthy Marketplace Index. The Index is a map-based tool from the Health Care Cost Institute that compares local prices for inpatient, outpatient and physician services across the US for 2012, 2013 and 2014. The researchers found significant…
Read MoreRegional state policymakers urge Congress to preserve successful state-federal Medicaid partnership
Yesterday, the Council of State Governments’ Eastern Regional Conference (CSG/ERC) sent a letter calling on Congressional leaders to protect and support the 50-year, successful state-federal Medicaid partnership. CSG/ERC is comprised of state policymaker members from eleven Northeastern states from Maine to Maryland as well as the U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico and five eastern Canadian…
Read MoreCourant Op-Ed: Plan to ‘Fix’ State Medicaid Program Flawed
From Saturday’s Hartford Courant, “These are lean times and we need our government to be smart about where it puts its resources. We don’t need our limited taxpayer dollars spent “fixing” things in our Medicaid program that aren’t broken.” The article points out the state’s backward plan, PCMH +, to apply a risky experiment, meant to slow…
Read MoreFDA committee tackles how to assess drugs that target serious infections but affect small populations
Last week’s meeting of the FDA’s Antimicrobial Drugs Advisory Committee was unusual. We didn’t address the merits of a single new drug the FDA is considering for approval but how to fairly assess drugs that target a single bacterial species causing very serious and deadly infections but that affect small populations. Getting sufficient numbers of…
Read MoreCTNJ: CT health policy has trust issues
An OP-ED today in CT News Junkie describes the sorry level of mistrust in CT health policymaking. “Mistrust is pervasive in Connecticut policymaking and it’s blocking progress.” Luckily we know how to fix it – if only we have the sense.Read the piece
Read MoreStudy raises concerns about ACO “savings” and gaming the system
A new study published in Health Affairs raises doubts about the effectiveness of Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) to both improve the quality of American health care while controlling costs. The study found very high physician turnover rates at a large Medicare ACO and that high cost patients were concentrated among a small minority of…
Read MoreMistrust in Connecticut health policymaking – Thoughtleaders, public weigh in on the problem and propose solutions
Connecticut health policymaking has trust issues. This year Connecticut health thoughtleaders rated trust among stakeholders at only 26 out of 100 possible points, with zero to ten being the most common response. Low trust scores were found in every stakeholder group. Research confirms that trust is an essential foundation to governing and reform; without it…
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