SustiNet Board and Workforce Task Force meetings

Yesterday the SustiNet Board heard from eHealthConnecticut , a CT nonprofit created four years ago to develop a secure statewide health information exchange. The Board includes broad representation across the health care spectrum including physicians, hospitals, clinics, pharmacists, employers, insurers, academics, quality organizations, state agencies, policymakers and consumer advocates including the CT Health Policy Project.…

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Health insurance employment in perspective

Yesterday’s Hartford Courant reports that just over 19,000 CT residents are employed at CT’s large health insurers – Aetna, United, CIGNA, HealthNet, Anthem and ConnectiCare. While impressive, those numbers pale in comparison to the number of CT residents employed in providing health services, according to the CT Dept. of Labor’s July report – 198,800. That…

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Unemployment up, but not for health care

Friday’s national unemployment numbers for May were up to 9.4% from 8.9% in April. Since December 2007 when this recession began, 7 million more Americans are unemployed. A study published in January by the Urban Institute estimated that if unemployment reaches 10% this year, 13.2 million Americans will lose employer-sponsored coverage, Medicaid and SCHIP will…

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Health care jobs carry CT’s employment outlook

The current issue of The CT Economic Digest, from the CT Dept. of Labor, reports that between December and April both CT and the US have had four consecutive months of contracting employment. (Apparently this isn’t bad enough for economists to label it a recession yet.) Historically CT’s employment downturns average 24 months while US…

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Courant column highlights UConn nursing program troubles

Too many graduates of UConn’s School of Nursing are not passing the national nursing exam according to Kevin Rennie’s column in today’s Hartford Courant. Apparently the poor performance is not new this year, but is unique to UConn. Nursing graduates of Quinnipiac University, Western CT State University and St. Joseph’s College are easily passing benchmarks.…

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