Issue Brief: Attribution and Why It Matters

A new brief describes attribution, a key component of payment reform. Attribution done wrong in a shared savings payment model can create incentive to cherry pick out less lucrative or difficult patients and disrupt existing provider-patient relationships. Attribution is the process of defining the population that a provider network is responsible for managing under a…

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Advocates’ guide to underservice recommendations

Connecticut’s State Innovation Model (SIM) is seeking to radically transform our state’s $30 billion health system by aligning incentives to build value. SIM has chosen a shared savings payment model for those reforms. Advocates are concerned about incentives to deny necessary care under the new payment model, as happened in the past. SIM’s Equity and…

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Advocates’ guide to underservice recommendations

SIM is seeking to radically transform our state’s $30 billion health system and has chosen a shared savings payment model for those reforms. Advocates are concerned about incentives to deny necessary care under the new payment model, as happened in the past. SIM’s Equity and Access Council was charged with developing protections to limit and…

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Happy Birthday, Medicaid — Connecticut has a lot to be thankful for

Fifty years ago today President Johnson signed the Medicaid program into law. The program now covers one in five Connecticut residents with efficient, quality care. Since switching from a capitated, insurer-based program to a self-determined, care-focused program in January 2012, costs are stable (down slightly) per person, quality is up (fewer people are going to…

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Where We Live: Medicaid is 50 and Looking Good

Fifty years ago this week, Lyndon Johnson signed Medicaid into law. On today’s show, WNPR’s Where We Livecelebrated the program that covers one in five CT residents with comprehensive care and brought $3.3 billion in federal funds to our state. More efficient than private insurance, leading the state in quality improvement as it cares for…

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Study finds CT early Medicaid expansion reduced hospital uncompensated care

A new study published in this month’s Health Affairs finds that CT hospital Medicaid revenue grew by 7 to 8% after CT took advantage of the ACA’s early Medicaid expansion option in 2010. The study also finds that uncompensated care costs to CT hospitals were one third lower than they would have been without the…

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Medicaid phone wait times drop significantly

At last week’s Medicaid Council meeting we heard about strong progress toward reducing phone wait times. Average wait times dropped 52% from April to May while abandoned calls fell 42%. By the last week of June, average wait times were down to 11 minutes from 57 minutes in March. The improvements resulted in 6,466 more…

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Budget implementer makes significant changes

Early this morning the House passed HB-1502– the 686-page bill that describes how the state FY 2016-2018 budget passed four weeks ago is to be implemented. But the bill also makes numerous substantive changes to the original budget. In addition to tax reductions for large businesses, the bill includes the implementer language to cut coverage…

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Webinar online – Caring for high-need patients – Lessons for CT

Evidence is growing that we cannot fix our health care system without addressing the needs of the small number of patients with very complex and costly health problems. Connecticut can learn from other programs across the US as we build reforms for our state and our Medicaid program.  On this week’s webinar we heard from…

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