hospitals
Former Medicaid Official shares troubled MCO history
Download the comments In comments to DSS for their landscape study, former Medicaid official Steve Colangelo warns against returning the program to MCOs. He worked in the program before and after the MCOs left in 2012. He outlines the problems that plagued the program and DSS staff under the MCO model. He details how the…
Read MoreHUSKY maternal health bundle questions 2.0
Based on DSS’s MAPOC presentation Friday on plans for maternity bundled payments, the CT Health Policy Project submitted some questions about the plan. The commendable goals of the plan are to improve health outcomes, equity, quality, and access to care while controlling costs through care management and greater efficiency. DSS plans to pay obstetrics practices…
Read MoreNew report quantifies CT nurse training – Growing, but we still need more
In 2022, Connecticut schools of nursing were at or near enrollment capacity, according to the latest analysis by the CT Center for Nursing Workforce and the CT Data Collaborative. This is a good thing, because we need more nurses. At 79,822 RNs in Connecticut, nurses are by far the largest class of healthcare workers in…
Read MoreAnalysis: The uninsured are still with us
September used to be a key month for policy wonks. We all eagerly awaited new Census numbers of the uninsured. But since passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), there is less attention to the uninsured. There is a sense that we are past the problem of people without coverage. But the latest Census numbers…
Read MoreMore updates to CT Healthcare Explained
We are continuing to update chapters in CT Healthcare Explained. This month we finished a complete overhaul of the Hospitals chapter. Last month we finished Consolidation and big health systems. Next is Quality. Connecticut’s healthcare system is deeply confusing. Too often people motivated to advocate for change find themselves frustrated and give up. To help…
Read MoreSix common myths about healthcare and three reasons why people believe them
Healthcare is complicated, people are easily confused, and there are powerful motivations to believe the many misconceptions. I was reminded of this at the last meeting of the industry-led group that is steering the state’s efforts to control healthcare costs. But the problem isn’t limited to industry representatives. Read more
Read MoreBook Club: Random Acts of Medicine
Deliberately randomized experiments in medicine and health policy are usually not possible, or even moral. But with increasingly available data and random changes in circumstances, natural experiments can teach us a great deal about what works and what doesn’t. Random events have a huge impact on our health, more than we’d like to acknowledge. Random…
Read MoreCT Healthcare Explained is updating
We are taking on the massive project of updating CT Healthcare Explained. We just finished the Workforce chapter, including updated numbers and wages for the broad range of people who provide healthcare. We’ve included trends, shortages, disparities, and changes happening and recommendations for improvement. We updated Healthcare Costs last month. Hospitals are next. Connecticut’s healthcare…
Read MoreCT medical debt levels declining, new state law will help even more
The percent of Connecticut residents with medical debt is coming down, but it still affects one in 28 of us, according to a fascinating new tool from the Urban Institute. In a survey last year, 3.5% of Connecticut residents (blue line) reported they have medical debt that has been referred to collections, down from 8.6%…
Read MoreAnalysis: Newest Hartford Healthcare lawsuit adds a critical twist
Yet another lawsuit against Hartford Healthcare (HHC) may seem obscure and limited to healthcare, but it goes much further. There is overwhelming evidence that prices for care at huge health systems like HHC are driving up healthcare prices for private health plans in Connecticut and it’s getting worse. The third anti-trust lawsuit against HHC outlines…
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