Twenty-six advocates support DSS decision to evaluate Medicaid reform

Wednesday 26 independent consumer advocates wrote the Lieutenant Governor supporting DSS’s decision to evaluate outcomes after the first wave of 200,000+ members into the new Medicaid shared savings program, MQISSP. The advocates support DSS’s prudent plan to assess the impact, good and bad, and make revisions before moving more people into the untested program. Enlightened…

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OHCA hears more from community about harm from YNHH-L&M deal

Tuesday OHCA got another earful from community members, providers and experts as they continued the public hearing on Yale-New Haven’s application to acquire L&M hospital and medical group. Intervenors, including the CT Health Policy Project, continued our testimony about likely price increases and loss of services in the New London community if the deal is…

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ICER seeks input on value asssessment methodology update

There is a growing concernthat untested new treatments and drugs are driving up the cost of health care. Consumers and payers don’t have enough trusted sources to evaluate the value of costly, new interventions – whether they are worth what they charge. The Institute for Clinical and Economic Research (ICER), a leading and trusted source…

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CT second lowest in US in premature deaths, but also among most costly states

Second only to New Hampshire among states, Connecticut residents are avoiding premature deaths preventable with better health care. However, no Connecticut community ranked in the top 10% across health indicators in the Commonwealth Fund’s 2016 Local Health System Scorecard. While we do very well in Healthy Lives measures, we have a great deal of work…

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Health Care Cabinet starts work on recommendations for reform

Yesterday the Health Care Cabinet gave consultants initial feedback on their “straw man” recommendations to improve health care and control costs in CT. The Cabinet has spent the last several months exploring leading state reforms preparing for our December report to the General Assembly. Members expressed concerns about the proposed consolidation of all state health…

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Community voices fears about proposed YNHH acquisition of L&M

OHCA’s public hearing about Yale-New Haven Health System’s plans to buy Lawrence & Memorial Monday in New London ran over 6 hours and had to be continued to later this month to finish. Public comment was split between those favoring the deal and others with concerns. A coalition of community groups, labor and consumer advocates,…

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Medicaid update – HUSKY parents’ time running out, home health and dental get different cuts, autism services moving

Friday’s Medicaid Council touched on several critical issues. We got an update, of sorts, on the fate of HUSKY parents facing the loss of coverage in three weeks. 20% of the 13,811 at-risk parents have either re-qualified for Medicaid (the large majority) or signed up for an AccessHealthCT plan. 3,877 parents from the original number…

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CT Health Reform Dashboard – SIM ethics problems grow, an insurer lost, HUSKY parents losing coverage

July’s CT Health Reform Dashboard update is very active. SIM ethics problems are back in the news, with the death of a bill that would have closed the legal loophole that exempts SIM appointees. The state insurance department has suspended HealthyCT, our state’s only non-profit, homegrown insurer. This is troubling on many levels including reducing…

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New HUSKY parents numbers show a lot of work needed before July 31st

No one knows why, but the number of HUSKY parents expected to lose coverage at the end of this month dropped from 17,688 to 13,811. That’s probably good news (depending on whether those four thousand already lost coverage and why), but as of late last week, only 15% had either been able to re-enroll in…

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