CT Health Reform
Charter Oak “pettiness”
To root out the sources of “negativity” about the Governor’s troubled Charter Oak program, on Friday DSS Commissioner Starkowski made very broad requests, under Freedom of Information laws, for any documents pertaining to Charter Oak from a long list of public officials including Sen. Jonathan Harris, Rep. Peter Villano, Sen. Toni Harp, Health Care Advocate…
Read MoreAG, Health Care and Child Advocates call on Governor to separately re-bid HUSKY and Charter Oak contracts
In a press conference today, Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, State Health Care Advocate Kevin Lembo, and State Child Advocate Jeanne Milstein commended the Governor for her decision Friday to de-link the HUSKY program of health coverage for families from her Charter Oak Health Plan for uninsured adults. The officials also called on the Governor to…
Read MoreGovernor delinks HUSKY from Charter Oak, guts PCCM
Friday afternoon Governor Rell announced that she will reverse two long standing policies that jeopardized health care for over 340,000 CT residents in the HUSKY and Charter Oak programs. Providers will now be able to contract with the new HUSKY HMOs to provide services only to HUSKY families and not Charter Oak members. The state…
Read MoreNew law allows children to stay on their parents’ policies until age 26, but there’s a catch
A new law takes effect January 1, 2009 that allows children to stay on their parent’s health policies to age 26. As young adults are at highest risk of being uninsured, this will be an important option to reduce CT’s uninsured. Previously, children were only covered on their parent’s policies until age 19 or 23…
Read MorePCCM applications rolling in
They are still counting provider applications at DSS for participation in PCCM, but early returns are encouraging. Dozens of providers have applied, including physicians, nurse practitioners and physician assistants, from across the state. All but one community health center has applied. We’ll let you know when we have a definitive list for the opening of…
Read MorePCCM could save HUSKY more than $100 million over HMOs
An analysis by the CT Health Policy Project estimates that it will cost the state $113 million more annually to moving HUSKY families to HMOs than to Primary Care Case Management (PCCM). PCCM is a way of running HUSKY without HMOs, by creating “medical homes” to coordinate care. PCCM has been successful in thirty other states…
Read MoreHUSKY/Charter Oak update
At today’s Medicaid Managed Care Council, the HUSKY HMOs’ provider panel reports showed that progress continues to be very slow. Sen. Harris pointed out that at this pace, the two new HMOs will take over a year to reach capacity similar to CHN’s panels. In the counties already transitioning to the HMOs, 94% of HUSKY…
Read MorePCCM provider forums scheduled
DSS has scheduled three forums for providers to learn more about PCCM. They are all at 6:30 pm. October 21 CT Health Policy Project offices in the Red Cross Building, 703 Whitney Avenue, New Haven *CANCELLED* October 22 Windham Hospital, 112 Mansfield Avenue, Willimantic October 23 DSS offices, 25 Sigourney Street, Hartford Applications and the…
Read MorePCCM public hearing and RFA out
The Appropriations and Human Services Committees held a public hearing today on DSS’ proposal for a PCCM pilot for HUSKY. Over thirty legislators came to hear Commissioner Mike Starkowski and Director of Medical Administration David Parrella outline their plans for the program. Legislators universally expressed enthusiasm for the plan and commended DSS for faithfully implementing…
Read MoreDSS answers Medicaid Managed Care Council on HUSKY and Charter Oak costs
Yesterday’s Medicaid Managed Care Council was standing room only for what is generally a dry actuarial discussion about rate setting. Questions from legislators and advocates were pointed but answers were fuzzy. First, representatives from Shramm and Raleigh, DSS’ no-bid financial contractors, described how Charter Oak’s costs and benefit package were arrived at. The original bids…
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