Search results for: SIM
CT health reform progress down 4th month in a row
Unfortunately CT’s progress toward health reform is down again this month to 25.6%, dropping for the fourth month in a row. Medicaid’s rushed return to a risky financial model and recent provider cuts led the concerns. However Medicaid officials continue to consult with stakeholders in the design. Higher premiums on CT’s health insurance exchange added…
Read MoreIndependent advocates call for more study on Medicaid payment shift
A letter signed by twenty one independent consumer advocates calls on the state to halt the SIM-driven Medicaid’s rush into a return to shared savings, a risky payment model. Dozens of issues remain to be addressed to protect the 770,000 people who rely on the program before the deadline of October 5th. The rush is…
Read MoreShared savings math doesn’t add up, CCIP plans could undermine Medicaid
A new brief outlines the risk to taxpayers from Medicaid shared savings increasing health costs, as SIM is pressing. About half of Medicare ACOs spent more money on health care for members under shared savings last year. If Connecticut’s ACOs perform in Medicaid shared savings as they did for Medicare, CT taxpayers could lose as much…
Read MoreACOs not saving for Medicare, model could cost CT Medicaid almost $100m/year
CMS’s vast shared savings experiment for Medicare has disappointed again in its second year. The plan was to encourage providers to assemble into health care systems, called Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs), to coordinate care and keep people well. The incentive was that the systems share half (or more) of the resulting savings. The only problem…
Read MoreCT health reform progress down again
Unfortunately CT’s progress toward health reform dropped again this month to 26.2% this month, adding to last month’s dip. Growing ethics and transparency problems at SIM led the concerns. CT hospital’s continuing poor performance on Medicare readmissions, consolidation and loss of services across hospitals added to the drop. In good news, if adopted SIM’s underservice…
Read MoreTestimony FOI never got to hear
Last week the Freedom of Information Commission held a hearing on my request for SIM documents related to their Consumer Advisory Board’s (CAB’s) votes on appointments to SIM committees. Those committees are making very important decisions about CT’s $30 billion health care system and ethical questions have been raised about committee members receiving substantial SIM…
Read MoreNew Gallup survey finds CT uninsured rate down more than half
Contrary to early CDC numbers, a new survey by Gallup finds that CT’s uninsured rate dropped from 12.3% in 2013 to 5.0% for the first half of this year. CT’s drop was similar to other states that chose to both expand Medicaid and create a state-based health insurance exchange. Rhode Island is tied with Oregon…
Read MoreAdvocates’ guide to underservice recommendations
Connecticut’s State Innovation Model (SIM) is seeking to radically transform our state’s $30 billion health system by aligning incentives to build value. SIM has chosen a shared savings payment model for those reforms. Advocates are concerned about incentives to deny necessary care under the new payment model, as happened in the past. SIM’s Equity and…
Read MoreAdvocates’ guide to underservice recommendations
SIM is seeking to radically transform our state’s $30 billion health system and has chosen a shared savings payment model for those reforms. Advocates are concerned about incentives to deny necessary care under the new payment model, as happened in the past. SIM’s Equity and Access Council was charged with developing protections to limit and…
Read MoreCT health reform progress down again
Unfortunately CT’s progress toward health reform dropped again this month to 26.4.5% this month, adding to last month’s dip. News that the only about half of AccessHealthCT consumers are even using the coverage they pay dearly for, increasing concerns about SIM’s ethics and grants to insiders, SIM’s cool reception to consumer protections in risky…
Read More