CT Health Reform
CT health reform progress dips to 28%
CT lost ground in progress toward health reform according to the August CT Health Reform Dashboard. The state moved backward to 28% completion mainly due to the new SIM/Medicaid plan that has drawn concerns from many stakeholders, less transparent policymaking, and concerns that a federal grant is driving health policy choices. Progress on patient-centered…
Read MoreJune CT Health Policy Webquiz: CT health system performance
Test your knowledge about Connecticut’s health system performance. Take the July CT Health Policy Webquiz.
Read MoreMedicaid Council voices concerns about new SIM proposal
In a special meeting yesterday, the majority of Medicaid Council members voiced concerns about the rushed, new SIM proposal for Medicaid. Legislators compared the new proposal to the failed HUSKY HMO proposal 20 years ago and made it clear that they are concerned about “going back down that road”. Concerns included the application’s aggressive pace of…
Read MoreData breach at Access Health CT, troubling for APCD future
Friday afternoon a backpack was found on a Hartford street with sensitive information on about 400 Access Health CT customers. The backpack included four notepads with handwritten names, social security numbers and dates of birth, as well as internal Access Health CT papers. People whose information was breached have been contacted and offered credit monitoring…
Read MoreAnthem & ConnectiCare premiums submitted are up sharply for 2015, HealthyCT rates down — updated
Proposed premiums for the insurance exchange were due to the insurance dept. Friday and they are up significantly from this year’s premiums, according to CT Mirror. Anthem’s proposed premiums are up 12.5% on average; ConnectiCare’s base rate is up 11.8% for next year. CT’s premiums for this year are the 4th highest in the nation…
Read MoreHealth reform dashboard up again but APCD decision drags down progress
The CT Health Reform Dashboard is up a notch again this month to 29.7% on the progress meter, reversing last month’s slide. Areas of progress include new insurance market entrants and, as usual, Medicaid’s progress in many areas driven by transparent, open policymaking. CT Medicaid has made consistent progress toward turning around a deeply troubled…
Read MoreNews: Independent CT hospitals discussing tiered networks, Pre-ACA CID routinely approved very high rates for Aetna
The Hartford Business Journal is reporting that some smaller, independent CT hospitals are in discussions with each other and with insurers about options that improve their efficiency and make coverage more affordable. The hospitals are talking with insurers about value-based insurance designs or tiered networks where consumers who choose to access care at lower priced…
Read MoreExchange 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 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…
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