ICD-10 holiday fun from STAT News

Holiday humor from STAT News includes a piece outlining ICD-10 medical codes for typical holiday health problems. If you’re looking for them, STAT has the codes for holiday injuries (contact with electric knife, struck by turkey), stress of waiting for Santa (behavioral insomnia of childhood, encounter for examination of eyes and vision with abnormal findings),…

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Help build trust in CT health policymaking – take a quick survey

Health reform offers Connecticut exciting opportunities to improve our troubled health care systems, but also daunting challenges. In several health policy circles, a lack of trust has been suggested as a barrier to progress. We are seeking thoughts and ideas to build trust across Connecticut’s health care system. Please take a very short confidential survey…

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CT among highest states in opioid-related hospital visits but rising more slowly than most states

In 2014, Connecticut’s per capita rate of opioid-related ED visits was 37% higher than the national average and our inpatient visit rate was 28% higher according to a new report by AHRQ. While those rates grew between 2009 and 2014 in almost every state, Connecticut’s growth rates were among the lowest in the nation. Opioid-related…

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CSG, ERC pass resolutions to preserve Medicaid state-federal partnership

At our meetings in Virginia last week, both the Nationaland Eastern Region Council of State Governments passed resolutions urging federal policymakers to support and continue the successful Medicaid state-federal partnership and “avoid the imposition of new burdens on state budgets.” The resolutions are in response to signals from the incoming federal administration and Congress to…

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Health Care Cabinet finalizes controversial report recommendations for reform with tight votes

At yesterday’s meeting, the Health Care Cabinet took a final vote on controversialrecommendations to reform our state’s health system. The main concern that garnered the most disagreement and public input was a recommendation to place all Medicaid and state employees in a downside risk payment model within four years. While the measure still passed, the…

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CT Health Reform Dashboard responds to eroding accountability in hospital oversight and Medicaid consumer rights

This month’s Health Reform Dashboardupdate once again reflects more attempts to unravel progress in CT.  Medicaid leads the concerns with the success of new ACOs at the last minute in blowing up federally required consumer notices that were carefully negotiated over months, so that consumers will need a college education to understand the risks of…

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