HUSKY
Advocates’ letter urges delay of SIM plans for Medicaid
Fifteen independent advocates sent a letter to the administration yesterday expressing deep concerns with SIM’s Community and Clinical Integration Plan (CCIP) for Medicaid. Advocates are concerned that CCIP will undermine hard-won progress in our state’s Medicaid program that has improved access to high quality care while controlling costs. In contrast to successful programs in other states, SIM…
Read MoreMarch web quiz: Medicaid costs in CT
Test your knowledge of Medicaid costs in CT. Take the March CT Health Policy Webquiz.
Read MoreSIM’s CCIP proposal for Medicaid reform – poor process drives weak plan
Public comments from the CT Health Policy Project raise deep concerns about SIM’s proposal for Medicaid reform requirements could undermine hard-won successes in the program and may not achieve the goals. The Community and Clinical Integration Plan (CCIP) is SIM’s plan for community-based resources to support Medicaid advanced networks that will be sharing in savings…
Read MoreMedicaid update – plans to “transition” 17,688 HUSKY parents off the program, serious SIM/CCIP problems jeopardize Medicaid redesign
Friday’s Medicaid Council meeting focused on implementation of last year’sbudget provision that will end coverage for 17,688 HUSKY parents on July 31stof this year. DSS reported on efforts to assure that people still eligible for Medicaid in other categories do not lose coverage. Of the 1,215 parents who lost coverage last year due to the…
Read MoreGovernor’s budget proposal – it could be way worse
Today the Governor announced his proposed budget for the coming fiscal year that starts July 1st. The very, very good news is that Medicaid is largely untouched – no new cuts to providers, no more people losing coverage, and minimal service limits (orthodontia). This is smart because current reforms in the program are working to…
Read MoreRadiologists’ cuts discussed at Medicaid committee meeting
Friday’s MAPOC Complex Care Committee included a presentation on the cut to radiologists’ rates this last session. Representatives of the Radiological Society of Connecticut outlined the across-the-board cuts effective last April that dropped payments for interpreting images from 100% to 57.5% of Medicare rates, lower than rates paid by other states. The physicians are concerned…
Read MoreHow CT can save $1 billion
Per person costs in CT’s Medicaid program fell, actually went down, by 5.9% last year. If the rest of CT’s state budget could match that performance, we would have a $1 billion surplus. Following is my list for how we could spend it (this was fun). · Reverse the HUSKY parents cut · Reverse the…
Read MoreMedicaid still saving $ hundreds of millions
Four years after shifting from managed care organizations to a care-management focused program, CT’s Medicaid program continues providing significant relief to the tight state budget. At today’s Medicaid Council meeting we learned that per person spending was down 5.9% from FY 2014 to 2015, saving the state $360 million just last year compared to no…
Read MoreOnly 15% of CT Medicaid smokers are getting medications to help quit
An article in this month’s Health Affairs estimates that only 15% of CT’s 102,000 Medicaid adults who smoke are getting medications to help them quit. While this is better than the 10% US average, there is a lot of room to improve. 31% of adults in our state’s Medicaid program smoke, about twice the rate…
Read MoreAdvocates urge SIM not to disrupt successful Medicaid PCMH program
In a letter to SIM steering committee members, the Medicaid Study Group urged support for DSS’s decision to build Medicaid reforms on the successful person-centered medical home program. Specifically the Group applauded DSS’s decision to only include members served by certified PCMHs in the new, untested shared savings model being planned for Medicaid. The Medicaid…
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