Smart Savings
How 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 MoreOp-Ed — CT Medicaid: Don’t Mess With What’s Working
In an unusual twist, two prominent legal aide attorneys highlight Medicaid’s exceptional performance in improving quality, expanding access to care and controlling costs in a New Haven Register op-ed yesterday. CT’s Medicaid program is remarkable in actually lowering the cost of care for members, while improving the care they receive. Legal aid’s role is not…
Read MoreCT Medicaid spending down 4.2% from FY 14 to FY 15
Happily CT’s Medicaid program is bucking the state budget trend. State spending on CT’s Medicaid program fell 4.2% between state fiscal year (FY) 2014 and 2015, largely due to higher federal reimbursements, according to an analysis by the Office of State Comptroller. Between FYs 2009 and 2015, Medicaid averaged 4.1% annual increases, lower than the…
Read MoreACOs not saving for Medicare, model could cost CT Medicaid almost $100m/year
CMS’s vast shared savings experiment for Medicare has disappointed again in its second year. The plan was to encourage providers to assemble into health care systems, called Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs), to coordinate care and keep people well. The incentive was that the systems share half (or more) of the resulting savings. The only problem…
Read MoreAdvocates support SIM underservice, cherry picking protections
Connecticut’s SIM plan acknowledges that risks of inappropriate under-treatment and cherry-picking are higher in new shared savings payment models. Advocates were successful in getting a provision included in the SIM final plan that prohibits payment of shared savings to provider networks that systematically deny needed care or cherry pick patients to generate those savings. The…
Read MoreAdvocates’ 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…
Read MoreWebinar 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…
Read MoreBest practices guide on integrating behavioral health into primary care
Up to 70% of physician visits involve a mental health issue and health care costs for people with mental health issues are often up to three times higher than other patients with similar conditions. CEPAC, New England’s comparative effectiveness council, has published their latest guide featuring best practices for integrating behavioral health services into primary…
Read MoreBackgrounder on Hartford health needs for Malta House of Care
Last week CTHPP gave a presentation for the Malta House of Care on health care needs in Hartford and health care trends. Malta provides free primary care to Hartford’s uninsured with volunteer providers and a mobile van that travels to neighborhoods in need. Given seismic shifts in the health care environment that affect both their…
Read MoreA Better Idea for SIM-Medicaid: Coordinate Care for High-Need, High-Cost Patients
Independent consumer advocates and others have raised grave concerns about Connecticut’s State Innovation Model (SIM) plans to radically change financial incentives in our state’s Medicaid program. The experience of other states offers a proven alternative, targeting resources toward high-need, high-cost patients, that would protect the impressive success we’ve achieved in the last three years. This…
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