ObamaCare 411 smartphone app release Monday at LOB

This Monday Small Business for a Healthy CT will host a live demonstration of Obamacare411, a suite of user-friendly information tools, to answer questions and cut through the confusion of national health reform. January 1st consumers and small businesses will face a confusing array of new opportunities, responsibilities and costs. The Obamacare 411 learning center,…

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CT nursing collaborative funded to build capacity

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has awarded the CT Nursing Collaborative Action Coalition a two-year grant to prepare CT nurses to address coming health care challenges including an aging and increasingly diverse population. The program supports efforts to transform health care through “a more highly educated, diverse nursing workforce that will improve health outcomes for…

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What 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…

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CT individual premiums expected to rise 29% next year

A new analysis by the Society of Actuaries predicts that non-group health insurance premiums will rise from the current monthly average of $339 to $514 in 2014. According to the authors, acknowledged by HHS Secretary Sebelius, the increase will result mainly from provisions of the Affordable Care Act. CT can expect our individual market to…

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HUSKY parents cut – costs outlined, rally planned

The Governor’s budget proposed cutting 37,500 working parents from Medicaid in 2014. Families affected have incomes between 133 and 185% of the federal poverty level — $25,975 to $36,131 for a family of three this year. The administration argues that those parents will be able to purchase federally subsidized coverage in the new insurance exchange.…

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Insurance Exchange web portal needs work

The access health CT (formerly the CT Health Insurance Exchange) web portal got a chilly reception from stakeholders at its first demonstration Wednesday. The web portal is the foundation of the state’s health reform efforts. People searching for coverage, in public programs or private insurance, will be directed to the website. The audience of brokers…

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Room change — Insurance exchange experts panel coming to CT

Tomorrow’s panel — Health Insurance Exchanges: How Connecticut Can Benefit — a panel of national and state experts sponsored by the Council of State Governments/Eastern Region will be in Room 2D (not 2C) of the LOB at 1:30pm. (It’s a very busy day at the Capitol.) The panel will describe what is happening in leading…

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Small business absence in Exchange planning

Kevin Galvin’s blog today notes the continuing absence of a small business voice on the CT Health Insurance Exchange Board, while the insurance industry’s voice is growing.

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Choosing Wisely grand rounds

Tuesday’s John Boden Symposium at Middlesex Hospital featured Michael LeFevre, MD, from UMissori-Columbia and Vice-Chair of the US Preventive Services Task Force, speaking on Choosing Wisely: How Doing Less Results in Better Care. The symposium was over-subscribed with 100 clinical staff eager to hear how they can provide better quality care by avoiding unnecessary treatments…

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CT Insurance Exchange standard plan – it got worse

Unaffordable in its first version, the CT Health Insurance Exchange Board today voted unanimously to raise deductibles and copays on the standard plans for in-network care, blaming federal regulatory constraints. The new standard plan for the Silver level raises the annual deducible (applicable to hospitals) from $2,500 to $3,000 and annual prescription deductible from $200…

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