HUSKY
Medicaid Council update
Today’s meeting started with an entertaining LOB intruder alert drill by the Capitol Police. DSS described shift to ASO for Charter Oak, HUSKY A and B, low income adults and all other Medicaid clients. The goal is to create dynamic, innovative local systems of care and support that are rewarded for providing better value over…
Read MoreGovernor’s budget proposal out
Governor Malloy’s first budget proposal, released today, includes tough choices for health care consumers but also some very good news. New copays for Medicaid services will likely reduce both appropriate and inappropriate utilization, but all Medicaid members will be able to access important tobacco cessation treatment. Reductions in benefits for low income adults are concerning…
Read MoreState moving to ASO and PCCM for all Medicaid consumers
At a press conference today, Lieutenant Governor Nancy Wyman and OPM Secretary Ben Barnes announced that CT’s Medicaid program will move to a self-insured administrative services organization (ASO) model effective Jan. 1, 2012. An RFP is expected to be released next month. The state will also expand the current PCCM/patient-centered medical home program statewide as…
Read MorePainless way to save $40 million in HUSKY
Our new policymaker issue brief outlines how moving HUSKY to self-insurance should save the state at least $40 million, without any changes in access to care. In 2008, under the PHIP/ASO model medical costs were actually lower than under HMO capitation the next year. Because the shift to self-insurance was sudden DSS was in a…
Read MoreThe final word – HUSKY ASO cost less than HMOs – or it should have
At Friday’s Medicaid Oversight Council meeting Mercer actuaries gave us the final comparison of the costs of the HUSKY program under the ASO/PHIP arrangement compared to the costs under capitated HMOs. We learned that in 2008 during the PHIP period, when the Governor removed any financial risk from the HMOs and the program ran as…
Read MoreNew report confirms that uninsured are NOT the reason for ER overcrowding, Medicaid is
Six out of seven ER visits to CT hospitals did not require hospital admission between 2006 and 2009, according to a new report by the Office of Health Care Access. Almost half were for non-urgent problems. Uninsured patients accounted for only one in eight ER non-admit visits, virtually the same as their proportion in the…
Read MoreMedicaid Council update
Financial numbers released at Friday’s Medicaid Care Management Oversight Council meeting highlighted the need for more sophisticated accountability or, even better, moving the program to a self-insured ASO model and removing any HMO incentives to game the system. The Council first heard about Aetna’s underwhelming and vague performance improvement programs; Aetna’s quality performance for members…
Read MoreOLR reports on major issues for 2011
The Office of Legislative Research’s annual list of issues likely to be addressed in the coming session includes: · Considering alternatives to HMOs for the troubled HUSKY, including statewide PCCM · Reconsidering last year’s budget requirement that HUSKY move from the current capitated HMO-based model to a self-insured ASO model, as is common to most…
Read MoreAdvocates ask CMS to intervene in HUSKY rate reductions
Two years ago, the state increased payment rates to providers in the Medicaid fee-for-service program and required that the HUSKY HMOs pay providers at least fee-for-service rates within the managed care program. The change in HMO contracts to require higher rates was included in the program’s federal waiver and capitation rates paid to plans were…
Read MoreFrom the consumer helpline: Medicaid consumers being charged
Two calls just this morning came from consumers covered by Medicaid being charged by hospitals. One was a mother on HUSKY Part A charged $281 by a hospital for services she already received. But the first call was from a man on Medicaid who was told by the hospital that they would not schedule the…
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