Smart Savings
Medicaid performance dashboard unveiled; marked improvement with switch from HUSKY HMOs
At Friday’s Medicaid Council meeting, DSS described their new ASO accountability dashboard with performance measures for the program. From January 2012, when the HMOs left the program, to this June the number of providers participating in CT’s program has grown 32%, hospital admissions are down 3.2%, the average length of stay is down 5%,…
Read MoreCT Health Policy Roundtable: CT’s APCD
Join national and state experts for a Roundtable to learn more about the potential for Connecticut’s new All-Payer Claims Database in health care planning, improving health care quality, capacity and promoting health equity. The Roundtable is sponsored by the CT Health Policy Project, the CT Center for Patient Safety and Access Health Analytics and made…
Read MoreJune CT Health Policy Webquiz: CT’s All Payer Claims Database
Test your knowledge of All Payer Claims Databases and what one could mean for Connecticut. Take the June CT Health Policy Webquiz.
Read MoreCT’s All Payer Claims Database – an important opportunity, if we do it right
A new report for the CT Health Foundation outlines CT’s progress and future options toward developing an All-Payer Claims Database (APCD). Putting all health care claims in the state across providers, payers and regions in one place would allow better health resource planning, identification of hotspots of high utilization, develop targeted solutions, improve patient safety…
Read MoreWhat can Charter Oak teach the CT health insurance exchange?
A comparison finds lower consumer costs in the current Charter Oak plan than the Access Health CT (the CT Health Insurance Exchange) standard silver plan. Governor Rell created Charter Oak almost five years ago for the same purpose as the exchange – offering affordable, decent coverage options for CT’s uninsured. While Charter Oak premiums started out…
Read More31 Ways to Save Money in CT’s Health Care Budget
The state budget is facing a billion deficit next fiscal year. We have 31 ways to both save money and improve quality and access to care. The options focus on payment reform, re-engineering care delivery, engaging consumers, quality reforms and prevention, learning from experience, removing waste and excessive administration. In 2010 we only had fifteen…
Read MoreHUSKY B saves $4 million in switch from HMOs
As advocates predicted, it appears the shift from capitated managed care to self-insurance saved the HUSKY Part B program $4 million in lower medical costs in the first six months. (The numbers are still tentative, as there may be some outstanding claims from the first half of the year, but they are not expected to…
Read MoreFixing Medicaid: Healing CT’s Largest Health Care Program
Access to care in CT’s public programs has always been a struggle; it is difficult to find a provider who takes Medicaid. In 2008 CT significantly raised Medicaid payment rates but a report by the CT Health Policy Project before, during and after the increase found that physician participation in the program didn’t improve. With…
Read MoreRAND report predicts reform will save CT state government 10% on health care spending
A new economic modeling analysis by RAND for the Council of State Governments estimates that 170,000 more CT residents will gain coverage by 2016 under health reform bringing our uninsured rate from 11% to 5%. The report also predicts that slightly more employers will offer coverage; employers will remain the largest source of coverage for…
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…
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