Stats & Data
More HIE concerns from advocates and others
Public comment to the Office of Health Strategy about the state’s planned Health Information Exchange raised concerns, including those regarding privacy and selling/monetizing the data shared in the advocates letter. Connecticut’s three legal services agencies sent a letter with similar concerns on Friday. Advocates’ concerns were raised by members at last week’s online Health IT…
Read MoreWalletHub – CT third worst state for doctors
According to WalletHub’s latest rankings, Connecticut ranks 49th among states and DC for physician practice. Nationally, physician is the highest paying job but new doctors leave medical school with $194,000 in student debt on average. As we all may be relying on physicians and other healthcare providers during this crisis, remember that March 30th is…
Read MoreCommunity health center quality behind the rest of Medicaid
Download the report The good news is that Medicaid health outcome quality measures generally improved in all practice setting from 2016 through 2018. Unfortunately, community health centers (FQHCs) are not doing as well as their counterparts, either other Patient-Centered Medical Home practices (PCMHs), or non-PCMH practices in serving Medicaid members. This data comes from CHNCT’s…
Read MoreNew state health data updates – over one in six CT residents have high medical cost burden
According to State Health Compare’s updated data, 18.1% of Connecticut residents had out-of-pocket health costs that were more than 10% of their family income in 2018. That is up from 17.8% the year before while the burden on the rest of the US went down. While Connecticut’s rate is bad, it’s better than the US…
Read MoreICER and Donaghue Foundation highlight the power of patient engagement in assessing value; ICER to report on novel opioid addiction interventions
Steve Pearson, President of the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER), has published two pieces for Connecticut’s Donaghue Foundation Soapbox on the importance of meaningful patient engagement in value assessments and an exciting new initiative to move beyond the usual rhetoric and integrate patient priorities into the value assessment outcomes. Patients are usually left…
Read MoreMedicaid switch from MCOs saving taxpayers billions
Download the brief here If Medicaid per member per month costs had held steady at 2012 levels, taxpayers would have spent $2.25 billion more by last year. As with most health care in Connecticut, Medicaid spending was rising quickly before 2012 growing by almost half over the prior four years. But in 2012, Connecticut made…
Read MoreIs CT healthy or not? Different rankings with different messages
Health rankings are all about definitions and what you measure — an important lesson with broad implications. A new health ranking of US cities by Wallet Hub is not great news for Connecticut. Of America’s 174 most populous cities, Bridgeport is #88 and New Haven is #98. Five cities in surrounding states are healthier than…
Read MoreCT hospital quality still lacking
New Medicare hospital quality ratings find little change from last year’s report. Almost half of Connecticut hospitals received three stars out of five, about the same as last year. Quality ratings didn’t change for half of Connecticut hospitals. This confirms a long history of underperformance by Connecticut hospitals. We did have one five-star hospital (Sharon)…
Read MoreUS overdose deaths down but no change for Connecticut
Americans’ life expectancy increased in 2018 for the first time since 2014. From 2014 through 2017, life expectancy fell 0.3 years, twice as much for American men as women. The drop was largely attributed to the sharp rise in overdose deaths during those years. Nationally, overdose deaths fell from 21.7 to 20.7 per 100,000 population…
Read MoreEvidence that children with private or Medicaid coverage both at risk of low-value care
A new study finds that both Medicaid and privately insured children frequently receive healthcare services that do not improve health. There has been an assumption that because providers are paid less by Medicaid, they have no incentive to provide unnecessary services. The study, published in Pediatrics, analyzed records from almost 7 million American children in…
Read More