Legislative update: SIM funding may draw lawsuit, nursing home profit sunlight bill passes House

The proposed state budget includes $3.5 million in funds for the new SIM state agency. CT Mirror reports that the funding is planned to come from a tax on insurers. The inclusion of self-insured plans in the new tax may draw a federal lawsuit. The state hopes it won’t and points to a vaccine program…

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Independent advocates publish comments on first 4 SIM position papers

CT independent consumer advocates have published comments on SIM’s first 4 policy papers.   Regarding Issue Brief #1 (provider surveys), advocates urge that the results of consumer experience of care surveys should be made public to use as tools for choosing care and as a lever to improve care quality, SIM must ensure that results…

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Webinar posted: Measuring quality and value at Crystal Run ACO

Video and slides from yesterday’s webinar with Crystal Run ACO have been posted. There are important lessons for CT policymakers implementing shared savings payment models. Crystal Run was one of the first Medicare shared saving ACOs and is one of seven NCQA certified ACOs. Hear the physician leaders explain how they monitor the quality of…

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SHOP exchange facing challenges, low enrollment

A CT Mirror article examines the reasons behind very low enrollment in CT’s insurance exchange for small businesses (SHOP). This shouldn’t come as news – low enrollment was predicted by analysts hired by the exchange. The reason was also predicted – it’s expensive. The article explores other problems including poor marketing, no online tool linking…

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208,301 in CT enrolled in health care under ACA

 AccessHealthCT has worked through the queue of applications pending when enrollment into the insurance exchange closed March 31st. Between Jan 1stand March 31st, 208,301 state residents were enrolled in coverage. Most qualified for Medicaid – 129,588 – approximately the number of new eligibles originally estimated for the state. (For the nitpickers out there – it…

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Join us: Measuring quality and value at CrystalRun Healthcare ACO

Please join us for a webinar Apr 22, 2014 11:30 am with CrystalRun Healthcare, one of seven NCQA accredited ACOs in the nation. NCQA requires robust quality improvement systems for accreditation, including under-service monitoring. Learn how CrystalRun Healthcare uses physician variation as a clue to reduce costs and improve access. They have reduced per patient…

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CT free dental clinic April 25 and 26 in Hartford

This year’s CT mission of Mercy free dental clinic will be held later this month Friday and Saturday, April 25th and 26th at the XL Center in Hartford. Previous clinics around the state have provided free dental care worth over $1.3 million to 1,782 people from 140 municipalities. Care is provided on a first come,…

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Settlement reached in Medicaid enrollment lawsuit

DSS and legal aid attorneys have reached a settlement in a class action case, filed in January 2012, over Medicaid application delays. Delays of six months are common for people with high medical costs or needing home care. Under terms of the settlement, by next April DSS must process 92% of applications within the federal…

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“free” preventive care that isn’t free

News reports are highlighting the nuances of implementing the ACA’s provision eliminating consumer cost sharing for preventive care. An article in the Washington Post includes an example of a practices adding a facility fee of $1,935 for a CT woman’s colonoscopy that should have been free. According to a WSJ article ‘“Patients are scheduling ‘physicals’…

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Medicaid update

Yesterday’s Medicaid Council focused on improving enrollment and quality performance in the program. From the new ConneCT Dashboard we learned that there is no longer a backlog of enrollment documents waiting to be scanned into the system, that waiting times for the call center are down from 75 to 39 minutes, but that the hours…

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