31 ways to save on healthcare in Connecticut’s budget

Connecticut’s state budget is facing future deficits and health spending is a large share of the budget. The state now spends $3.8 billion between Medicaid and the state employee health plan to cover about a million state residents. Health care spending outside the state budget is also growing. Connecticut has the sixth highest per capita…

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CT News Junkie: What does it take to stop repeating a bad idea?

Albert Einstein believed the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over but expecting a different result. Unfortunately, Connecticut policymakers haven’t learned this lesson. Provider financial risk is a bad idea that has failed both in our state and nationally. Read more

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CT exchange premiums up this year, but similar to other states and still too high

There have been national reports of extreme increases for this year in health insurance exchange premiums, largely due to Trump administration policies. Not surprisingly, a new analysis by the Urban Institute for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation finds that states with more competition among insurers and more options for consumers have the lowest premiums. Connecticut’s…

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New Hartford HealthCare-Tufts insurance company raises concerns

Wednesday, Hartford HealthCare and Tufts Health Plan announced the formation of a new, jointly-owned insurer, CarePartners of Connecticut, to sell Medicare Advantage plans to Connecticut residents for next year, pending CMS approval. Hartford HealthCare includes thousands of providers in home health care, rehab services, long term care, behavioral healthcare, and five hospitals, to date. In…

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Poor choice of monitor in YNHH-L+M deal undermines accountability

Yale-New Haven Health has chosen Deloitte & Touche to monitor compliance with conditions of their acquisition of Lawrence + Memorial Healthcare. The conditions on the unusual acquisition were set in place by the state to protect prices in the new monopoly market, protect health services for southeastern CT, oversee promised investments in the region, and…

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CT remains costly for Long Term Services and Supports while demand grows

A new survey by Genworth Financial finds that costs for Long Term Services and Support in Connecticut are among the highest in the nation, and rising. At $146,000 for a semi-private room and $158,775 for a private room, median annual costs of nursing home care were more expensive in Connecticut last year than any other…

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Poor choice of monitor in YNHH-L+M deal undermines accountability

Yale-New Haven Health has chosen Deloitte & Touche to monitor compliance with conditions of their acquisition of Lawrence + Memorial Healthcare. The conditions on the unusual acquisition were set in place by the state to protect prices in the new monopoly market, protect health services for southeastern CT, oversee promised investments in the region, and…

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Coalition calls for transparency, public input on Yale L+M deal

A broad coalition of consumer advocates, including the CT Health Policy Project, community leaders, caregivers, labor representatives, and providers has called on OHCA to engage the public and consider the community when implementing the unusual deal allowing Yale to purchase L+M hospital and physician group. In a letter to DPH, the coalition praised price caps…

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