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Better, safer ideas to support primary care in Connecticut
Download the report Primary care is the foundation of the health system. It is, or should be, patients’ first interaction with the healthcare system for non-urgent issues. There is strong evidence that care coordination linked to primary care practices, such as patient-centered medical homes (PCMHs), foster improved health while lowering costs.[i] Areas with more primary…
Read MorePublic Option Forum – high expectations, big challenges
Legislators were warned that ideas that sound simple are rarely that easy at last week’s forum on building a public option to bring down CT’s high health insurance premiums. The forum by the Insurance and Human Services Committees brought in national experts to explore the concept. The idea is to create a non-profit, publicly-accountable insurance…
Read MoreCT Medicaid’s managed fee-for-service model saved $300 million last year
Updated 2/19/2019 We got very good news on Medicaid spending, again, at last week’s MAPOC meeting. Per member costs were down 2% from 2016 to last year, even despite hospital rate increases, saving taxpayers $300 million. The state’s share of Medicaid has barely budged since 2014, despite huge enrollment increases. CT remains behind other states…
Read MoreMedicaid update: Quality improving but lots of work to do
Friday’s Medicaid Council meeting focused on quality performance in the program. The good news – ED visits and readmissions continue dropping across the program, although community health centers’ performance remains a problem Well-child visit and lead screening rates are higher than the national average Routine care is increasing and inpatient care is decreasing The bad…
Read MoreComments to DSS opposing increase in PCMH Plus funding for program that didn’t improve quality and increased state costs
Read the full comments Thank you for this opportunity to oppose this amendment to add an additional $600,000 to the growing costs of PCMH Plus, the experimental new Medicaid shared savings program. The state cannot afford to spend more on this program that, in 2017 its first year, did not improve the quality of care…
Read MorePCMH Plus Year 1 Performance and Savings Results: Increased state costs but little evidence of impact on quality
Read the full report This month, Connecticut Medicaid announced the first year performance of PCMH Plus[1], their controversial new shared savings program[2] compared to the prior year. Under shared savings, if health systems (ACOs) are able to lower the cost of their members’ care, they receive a bonus equal to half those savings. PCMH Plus…
Read MoreLamont transition health committee first meeting
The Lamont transition policy committees held their first meeting in Willimantic yesterday. After public speeches, the committees began their work with a short public meeting and then moved into private meetings. The Health Committee is Co-Chaired by Jennifer Jackson, CEO of the CT Hospital Association, and Gerald Weiner, of Sussman, Duffy, Segaloff and a member…
Read MoreState individual mandate law would lower uninsured by 88,000 and premiums by 10%
A new analysis by the Commonwealth Fund estimates the impact if states passed their own individual mandate laws, similar to Massachusetts’ law that predated the ACA. According to researchers, by 2020 CT could expect our uninsured rate to drop by 34% with 88,000 more state residents having coverage. Most would gain coverage through Medicaid/CHIP (33,000)…
Read More31 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…
Read MoreCT 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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