CT exchange plans violating ACA women’s coverage protections

Researchers found eight violations in 2014 and thirteen violations this year of Affordable Care Act women’s coverage provisions by plans offered in CT’s insurance exchange. The new report by the National Women’s Law Center analyzed benefits and offerings of ACA-required services women need among marketplace plans in fifteen states. Violations in CT included breastfeeding supports…

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SIM responds to advocates’ Medicaid concerns

Monday the Lieutenant Governor responded to a letter signed by independent advocates signed by twenty independent consumer advocates and providers raising concerns about SIM’s plans for Medicaid. In her letter, the Lieutenant Governor agreed that CT’s Medicaid program has become a national model of success, improving access to care, raising quality and controlling costs. Those achievements resulted…

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Appropriations Committee restores most of the Governor’s proposed health care cuts

Today the Appropriations Committee released their budget, restoring most of the deep Medicaid cuts the Governor proposed in February. The committee rejected the Governor’s proposal to cut 34,000 working parents and pregnant women from HUSKY coverage. The committee also restored funding, accounting for inevitable delays, for the innovative health neighborhoods pilots to coordinate care for…

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Backgrounder on Hartford health needs for Malta House of Care

Last week CTHPP gave a presentation for the Malta House of Care on health care needs in Hartford and health care trends. Malta provides free primary care to Hartford’s uninsured with volunteer providers and a mobile van that travels to neighborhoods in need. Given seismic shifts in the health care environment that affect both their…

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National health disparities summit coming to CT

June 12th and 13th the UConn Health Center will host the National Health Disparities Elimination Summit. Dr. Louis Sullivan, former HHS Secretary, CEO& Chairman of the Sullivan Alliance and President Emeritus of Morehouse School of Medicine, will be the keynote speaker. The conference is sponsored by UConn, the CT Institute for Clinical and Translational Science,…

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Some possible, potential, small, but encouraging good state revenue news

With big disclaimers, the CT Mirror is reporting very early indications are that CT is having a good tax season. It may be premature, but right now it looks like April tax receipts are up slightly above even the very optimistic projections in the Governor’s budget. Hopefully this gives the state some room to reject…

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Weeds you should understand

A great NY Times Upshot article describes, in normal English, the difference between mortality and survival rates. They do sound the same, but aren’t. The article starts out with two cancer studies seem to have reached opposite conclusions. (These things really bug me because it leads people to throw up their hands and doubt all…

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MAPOC committee beginning work on shared savings program redesign

The MAPOC committee that is working with DSS to redesign Medicaid under the SIM directives met Wednesday to begin the process of designing a shared savings plan. The plan will be called theMedicaid Quality Improvement and Shared Savings Program (MQISSP). In good news, DSS was able to secure from SIM a delay of six months…

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Community rally about Bradley Hospital inpatient beds

The Community Committee to Save Bradley Hospital will be holding a rally April 26th at 2pm, at the Southington Historical Society, 239 Main St. Southington, rain or shine, to convince leadership at Hartford Healthcare to retain inpatient beds at Bradley Hospital. The committee was able to convince leaders to keep the ER at Bradley open,…

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Only 36% of CT physicians have any shared savings arrangements, correcting questionable SIM estimates from 2013 driving expansive policy

UConn’s new SIM survey of CT physicians found that currently only 36% of CT physicians participate in any shared savings or ACO program. There is no information on whether shared savings are a significant part of revenues in even the minority of physicians who are in this payment model. Not surprisingly, shared savings is slightly…

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