ICER to report on unjustified drug price increases

Early next year, the nonprofit Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER) will issue its first report on US drug price increases that are not supported by clinical evidence. ICER is a leader in assessing the value of medical treatments, including medications. ICER’s benchmark price ranges for new drugs have been used by Medicaid programs,…

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31 ways to save on healthcare in Connecticut’s budget

Connecticut’s state budget is facing future deficits and health spending is a large share of the budget. The state now spends $3.8 billion between Medicaid and the state employee health plan to cover about a million state residents. Health care spending outside the state budget is also growing. Connecticut has the sixth highest per capita…

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Most CT uninsured qualify for ACA coverage

Almost two in three uninsured CT residents qualifies for either Medicaid or tax credits through Access Health CT, according to a new analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation. While the uninsured rate dropped by half after implementation of the Affordable Care Act, 217,000 CT residents remained uninsured in 2016. Of those 63,000 (29%) were eligible…

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WNPR’s Where We Live focuses on skyrocketing prescription costs, ACA protections at risk

Yesterday, WNPR’s Where We Live, “Sick of the Cost of Prescription Drugs?”, drilled down into the rising costs of prescription drugs that are squeezing out other priorities and on Trump administration ACA policies that jeopardize coverage for people with preexisiting conditions and raise premiums for everyone. Guests included US Senator Chris Murphy, State Rep. Sean…

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Medicaid update: Quality was rising through 2016, raising concerns about PCMH+

Friday’s MAPOC meeting focused on Medicaid quality and access information from CHNCT, DSS’s administrative contractor for the program. Across the 12 (of over 100) quality measures chosen, there was modest but sustained improvement from 2014 through 2016. However community health center performance consistently lags behind other PMCH practices across the quality measures. Of particular concern…

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CT suicide rate up, but it could be worse

The national suicide rate grew by 25% from 1999 to 2016 while CT’s rate grew by 19.2% over those years, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Suicides in CT are more than three times higher for men and 31% higher for whites. Over half of Americans who died by suicide did…

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CT and surrounding states provide better than average quality care to Medicaid members

CMS has published a new Medicaid/CHIP scorecard to promote accountability and transparency in states’ programs. The site allows comparisons of state enrollment, eligibility, and access to relevant documents (state plan amendments and waivers) and expenditures. Most interesting is comparisons by state across adult and child health quality metrics for 2016. Like our neighboring states, CT…

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