HUSKY
Charter Oak “pettiness”
To root out the sources of “negativity” about the Governor’s troubled Charter Oak program, on Friday DSS Commissioner Starkowski made very broad requests, under Freedom of Information laws, for any documents pertaining to Charter Oak from a long list of public officials including Sen. Jonathan Harris, Rep. Peter Villano, Sen. Toni Harp, Health Care Advocate…
Read MoreAG, Health Care and Child Advocates call on Governor to separately re-bid HUSKY and Charter Oak contracts
In a press conference today, Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, State Health Care Advocate Kevin Lembo, and State Child Advocate Jeanne Milstein commended the Governor for her decision Friday to de-link the HUSKY program of health coverage for families from her Charter Oak Health Plan for uninsured adults. The officials also called on the Governor to…
Read MoreGovernor delinks HUSKY from Charter Oak, guts PCCM
Friday afternoon Governor Rell announced that she will reverse two long standing policies that jeopardized health care for over 340,000 CT residents in the HUSKY and Charter Oak programs. Providers will now be able to contract with the new HUSKY HMOs to provide services only to HUSKY families and not Charter Oak members. The state…
Read MorePCCM applications rolling in
They are still counting provider applications at DSS for participation in PCCM, but early returns are encouraging. Dozens of providers have applied, including physicians, nurse practitioners and physician assistants, from across the state. All but one community health center has applied. We’ll let you know when we have a definitive list for the opening of…
Read MorePCCM could save HUSKY more than $100 million over HMOs
An analysis by the CT Health Policy Project estimates that it will cost the state $113 million more annually to moving HUSKY families to HMOs than to Primary Care Case Management (PCCM). PCCM is a way of running HUSKY without HMOs, by creating “medical homes” to coordinate care. PCCM has been successful in thirty other states…
Read MoreSecond PCCM provider forum also successful
Last night, DSS held their second forum for providers on PCCM at DSS’ offices in Hartford. Again the event was very well attended and most providers were enthusiastic about the program. As in Tuesday’s forum, concerns about adequate adult medicine resources were raised, but in at least one case community adult and pediatric providers linked…
Read MoreGovernor agrees to delay HUSKY defaults until February
Yesterday legislators and the Attorney General held a press conference urging Governor Rell to delay forcing 250,000 HUSKY families into HMOs with inadequate provider networks. Families were scheduled to be defaulted into three HUSKY HMOs December 1st including two new health plans, Aetna Better Health and AmeriChoice, which have had difficulty enrolling providers. Just after…
Read MorePossible legal action to stop HUSKY families default into HMOs
Kevin Lembo, CT’s Health Care Advocate, plans to sue the state to stop the planned December 1st mandatory transition of over 200,000 HUSKY consumers into managed care plans that do not have adequate provider networks. Lembo and a growing group of advocates and officials have been concerned that the planned transition will lead to many…
Read MoreSuccessful PCCM provider forum last night
Over 30 providers attended the PCCM forum held with DSS at our offices in New Haven last night. We had to get more chairs and make extra copies of the materials. There was a great deal of enthusiasm for the program and most providers suggested that they will be filling out an application. Most providers…
Read MoreGovernor’s deficit mitigation plan includes cuts to medical interpreters
Today the Governor announced her plan to address CT’s looming $268 million state budget deficit. Her plan cuts $1.175 million in previously approved funding for medical interpretation services in the Medicaid program. The CT Health Foundation reports that 22,000 people with limited English proficiency were enrolled in CT’s Medicaid program in 2003 and that communication…
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