Community Care Teams addressing high-cost Medicaid member needs

Friday’s MAPOC Complex Care Committee meeting focused on Community Care Teams (CCTs) that collaborate across social service to help people with complex health problems. So far, seven CT communities are developing or already operating CCTs that focus on frequent ED visitors. The CCT teams include hospitals, behavioral health and primary care providers with community resources…

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Advocates’ Medicaid Study Group offers recommendations for Medicaid shared savings reform

Over a dozen Connecticut independent consumer advocates representing diverse populations and issue areas spent the last several months diving deep into Medicaid shared savings and today released recommendations for our state’s program. The Medicaid Study Group formed early in 2015 in response to a request from the Co-Chairs of the Medicaid Council’s Care Management Committee to…

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Advocates’ guide to underservice recommendations

Connecticut’s State Innovation Model (SIM) is seeking to radically transform our state’s $30 billion health system by aligning incentives to build value. SIM has chosen a shared savings payment model for those reforms. Advocates are concerned about incentives to deny necessary care under the new payment model, as happened in the past. SIM’s Equity and…

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Advocates’ guide to underservice recommendations

SIM is seeking to radically transform our state’s $30 billion health system and has chosen a shared savings payment model for those reforms. Advocates are concerned about incentives to deny necessary care under the new payment model, as happened in the past. SIM’s Equity and Access Council was charged with developing protections to limit and…

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Webinar online – Caring for high-need patients – Lessons for CT

Evidence is growing that we cannot fix our health care system without addressing the needs of the small number of patients with very complex and costly health problems. Connecticut can learn from other programs across the US as we build reforms for our state and our Medicaid program.  On this week’s webinar we heard from…

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CSG/ERC Hopkins tour highlights patient safety, care coordination and cancer innovations

Yesterday’s off-site trip to Johns Hopkins from the CSG/ERC annual meeting was impressive. We heard about out of the box thinking by a clinical scientist that led to a breakthrough in treating lung cancer – that very low, but longer term doses of chemotherapy drugs worked better than full doses in shrinking tumors and helped…

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Medicaid Council update

Friday’s Medicaid Oversight Council meeting focused on the success of the Intensive Care Management Program. The program provides the most fragile Medicaid consumers with team-based, patient-centered care starting with a comprehensive assessment of what consumers need, both health and other supports, strengths and barriers. The team supports the consumer in setting their own goals and…

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PCCM/HUSKY Primary Care now on Facebook

The effort to move PCCM forward in Connecticut is taking a new turn – yes, we are joining Facebook! Type in “HUSKY Primary Care” on Facebook. The goal of this new group is to get people on or interested in HUSKY to talk about the exciting new option of PCCM/HUSKY Primary Care, with each other…

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DSS outlines options to move HUSKY away from capitation – or not

At yesterday’s Medicaid Care Management Oversight Council (formerly known as the Medicaid Managed Care Council), DSS outlined three policy options to restructure HUSKY’s financing. The options were a response to direction in the latest budget to move HUSKY from a fully insured, capitated system to a self-insured, ASO model; the budget included approximately $75 million…

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PCCM Update

At yesterday’s Appropriations’ Human Services Subcommittee meeting, DSS reported on progress toward implementing a pilot Primary Care Case Management program for HUSKY. DSS has been busy researching other states’ PCCM programs, including a January trip to MA to hear from several states’ about best practices and collecting PCCM provider contracts. DSS generously invited this advocate…

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