Cadillac tax will affect 13.6% of single premiums in CT in 2018

Under the Affordable Care Act, in 2018 high cost employer-sponsored health plans will begin paying a hefty 40% tax, termed the Cadillac tax, on the value of the plan over specified threshold levels. A new report by the Congressional Budget Office estimates that 13.6% of CT single premium plans and 11.9% of CT family plans…

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CSG ERC health panel shares innovation lessons, resources for policymakers

Today’s Health Policy panel at CSG/ERC’s Annual Meeting in Wilmington DE focused on health care innovations that build value. States shared lessons learned and resources.  We heard from Heidi Louise Behforouz, MD of AnansiHealth and Brigham and Women’s Hospital about the value of including community health workers into the health team. We also heard from…

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SIM update, equity planning questions

At Thursday’s SIM steering committee meeting in public comments, SB Chaterjee raised concerns about DPH’s planning to address health equity. Important planning meetings occur in closed meetings, without public notice or minutes. (Sound familiar?) Questions were also raised about how federal funds have been spent and the required conflict of interest policy is not available.…

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CTNJ op-ed: Insurers blocking underservice protections, again

Consumer protections had a good start in Connecticut’s latest health reform plan. But, as always, the devil is in the details. Unfortunately insurers are working to sabotage those protections to benefit their bottom line. Read more

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Testimony FOI never got to hear

Last week the Freedom of Information Commission held a hearing on my request for SIM documents related to their Consumer Advisory Board’s (CAB’s) votes on appointments to SIM committees. Those committees are making very important decisions about CT’s $30 billion health care system and ethical questions have been raised about committee members receiving substantial SIM…

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CT still lags most states in Medicare hospital readmission rates

According to Kaiser Health News, ninety percent of CT’s acute care hospitals will be assessed a penalty by Medicare because of high readmission rates, starting October 1st. 54% of US hospitals will be penalized this year for the percent of Medicare patients with certain conditions who return to the hospital within 30 days, down slightly…

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New Gallup survey finds CT uninsured rate down more than half

Contrary to early CDC numbers, a new survey by Gallup finds that CT’s uninsured rate dropped from 12.3% in 2013 to 5.0% for the first half of this year. CT’s drop was similar to other states that chose to both expand Medicaid and create a state-based health insurance exchange. Rhode Island is tied with Oregon…

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Advocates’ guide to underservice recommendations

Connecticut’s State Innovation Model (SIM) is seeking to radically transform our state’s $30 billion health system by aligning incentives to build value. SIM has chosen a shared savings payment model for those reforms. Advocates are concerned about incentives to deny necessary care under the new payment model, as happened in the past. SIM’s Equity and…

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Advocates’ guide to underservice recommendations

SIM is seeking to radically transform our state’s $30 billion health system and has chosen a shared savings payment model for those reforms. Advocates are concerned about incentives to deny necessary care under the new payment model, as happened in the past. SIM’s Equity and Access Council was charged with developing protections to limit and…

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