Insurance Committee passes bills prohibiting anti-competitive health system practices

This morning, the Insurance and Real Estate Committee approved two bills that  prohibit huge healthcare systems from using their monopoly power to jack up prices and insurance premiums. The Committee’s bill passed unanimously; the Governor’s bill that also includes an out-of-network price cap passed overwhelmingly. The Committee passed a similar bill last year. It passed…

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Healthcare breaches reach new high — affecting Members of Congress and over 70,000 in CT

Over 385 million US patient records were breached between 2010 and last year, including 70,340 Connecticut patient records. Those are only the breaches that affect over 500 people and are reported to HHS’s Office of Civil Rights. As more medical records are digital and we use add more digital healthcare services, opportunities for hackers have…

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Insurance committee to hear bills that mitigate consolidation and lower healthcare costs

Download our testimony One of the main drivers of Connecticut’s rising healthcare costs is consolidation in the healthcare market, making health coverage increasingly unaffordable for consumers, employers, and businesses. The consolidation of hospitals and providers into large health systems in Connecticut has stifled competition, allowing prices to rise unchecked. Large health systems use anti-competitive contract…

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Data brokers are offering sensitive mental health info for cheap

As the need for mental health care grows and capacity tightens, patients are turning to telehealth and apps. Hispanics are especially likely to use healthcare apps which are not covered by privacy laws. Researchers found data brokers advertising easy access to very sensitive information for as little as $275. Brokers “advertised highly sensitive mental health…

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Op-Ed: Things to like in the Governor’s budget proposal

This is new for me and I may be alone, but I found a lot to like in the Governor’s budget. This fall the administration must have been listening to complaints about their disappointing healthcare record. Their new budget proposal starts to turn that around, tackling the drivers of soaring healthcare costs – prices for…

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Barriers to Fair Access Report prompts insurers to improve access to 11 drugs

There’s a lot of very appropriate focus on the unfairness of unwarranted drug prices. But an equally important key to patients accessing those drugs is the fairness of insurance policies. To keep premiums affordable, insurers must balance, even encourage, appropriate to access care, while deterring overtreatment and excessive prices. ICER, the nation’s leading value assessment…

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Update: Policy options to support competition and control healthcare prices

Download the fact sheet Download the updated resource list Healthcare service prices are the main driver of Connecticut’s rising health insurance premiums. The consolidation of hospitals and providers into large health systems has stifled competition, allowing prices to rise unchecked. Other states have taken action to protect competition in consolidated markets and it’s working. Connecticut…

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CTNJ op-ed: Health insurance affordability review is good, but it’s no silver bullet

A movement to include affordability in the Insurance Department’s review of health insurance premiums is gaining champions. That’s a good thing. The best care is useless if you can’t afford it. Holding insurers accountable for lowering costs is important, but it’s not going to solve everything. We need to do much more to get costs…

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No evidence to justify increases for 7 of top 10 most costly drugs

The latest Unsupported Price Increase report from the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review finds that, last year, seven of the ten most costly drugs in the US that raised net prices well over the rate of general inflation, had no new clinical evidence of effectiveness to justify the increases. The increases on just these…

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CT’s best healthcare secret — CID’s Consumer Report Card

It may not attract the same enthusiasm as other holidays this time of year, but if you’re shopping for health insurance during this Open Enrollment season, you need this resource. As a health policy researcher, there are few better sources of information on how insurers are performing. The Consumer Report Card on Health Insurance Carriers…

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