Health Report Card

CT’s August Health Reform Dashboardremains mixed. Medicaid policy development and implementation remains mired in mistrust, rushing ahead without data, quality problems, and a lack of transparency while state officials refuse to answer questions. The new state HIT plan is travelling the same troubled path from the past but thankfully physicians and others are just getting…

July’s CT Health Reform Dashboard reflects growing uncertainty at the state and federal levels. If passed, Congressional proposals to replace the ACA will shift massive costs onto CT and result in a sharp drop in coverage. State budget cuts threaten current services and coverage. Nevertheless, DSS is doggedly forging ahead with a questionable payment experiment…

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…

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+,…

CT’s April Health Reform Dashboard is somewhat more settled than last month – but that’s not a good thing. Efforts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, plus cap Medicaid spending, were temporarily suspended, but are moving again at the federal level in the House. Despite the repeated lessons of history in CT, proponents…

March’s CT Health Reform Dashboard update reflects good, bad and uncertain policy movement in CT and DC. Most troubling is the level of mistrust among stakeholders in our state’s health system first recognized formally by out-of-state consultants to the Health Care Cabinet. This problem undermines even well-intentioned efforts to make progress, that otherwise would receive…

Connecticut health care thought leaders again gave our state a C+ grade for health reform last month, but our GPA dropped from 2.4 to 2.2. Connecticut’s grade for effort didn’t change from last year still at a B-/C+ (GPA 2.5) in this survey. Connecticut continues to earn higher marks for Medicaid and the health insurance…

February’s CT Health Reform Dashboard update reflects growing concerns about CT’s Medicaid program. Problems with the new EVV system threaten consumer access to home care, provider sustainability and privacy rights. The experimental PCMH+ program began a month ago, but no information on the program has been shared and plans for evaluation too little and too…

January’s CT Health Reform Dashboard update reflects CT’s changing health care landscape. Uncertainty is fueled by a significant state budget deficit and, at the federal level, the ACA repeal and radical plans to change Medicaid. The Health Care Cabinet’s attempts at reform are mercifully over. It’s unclear how much of the very contentious report will…

This month’s Health Reform Dashboardupdate once again reflects more attempts to unravel progress in CT.  Medicaid leads the concerns with the success of new ACOs at the last minute in blowing up federally required consumer notices that were carefully negotiated over months, so that consumers will need a college education to understand the risks of…