Search results for: SIM
A Better Idea for SIM-Medicaid: Coordinate Care for High-Need, High-Cost Patients
Independent consumer advocates and others have raised grave concerns about Connecticut’s State Innovation Model (SIM) plans to radically change financial incentives in our state’s Medicaid program. The experience of other states offers a proven alternative, targeting resources toward high-need, high-cost patients, that would protect the impressive success we’ve achieved in the last three years. This…
Read MoreHealth reform update – the power of price transparency, more SIM concerns
At an important Public Health Committee hearing Wednesday, Senate leaders from both parties testified together on a slate of seven bills that would make a great start to reforming health care in our state. Among other things the bills address facility fees, price variation that has no relation to quality, hospital consolidation oversight, EMR assistance…
Read MoreSIM bill hearing in Public Health next Wednesday
HB- 6938, AAC the Delivery of Quality Health Care and Modernization of Health Care Facilities, will have a public hearing next Wednesday March 11th at 10:30 at the LOB in Room 1D. SIM is planning to radically transform health care for every state resident, including moving 200,000 Medicaid members back into a financial risk model…
Read MoreAdvocates call on SIM to adopt state Code of Ethics
A letter was sent yesterday from independent consumer advocates to SIM leadership calling for SIM to follow CT’s Public Officials and State Employees Guide to the Code of Ethics, to protect the integrity of both SIM contracting and larger health reform efforts in our state. The advocates are asking for these protections now, before major…
Read MoreTroubling Medicaid, SIM updates
Friday’s Medicaid Council meeting focused on eligibility, renewal changes and implementation with a very helpful primer on the process. There is no clear answer to why Medicaid membership has dropped by 34,232 since October, but the transition to MAGI income rules and renewal delays to protect consumers from lapses in coverage are probably part of…
Read MoreSIM update – PCMH standards undermined, weak ethics adopted, but underservice group is moving forward
Again, SIM takes one step forward but two steps back. At yesterday’s steering committee meeting, SIM adopted an ineffective, weak conflict of interest policy, without a vote or any discussion. The policy would allow members to bid on significant SIM contracts that they had a substantial role in defining, potentially advantaging their company, provider or…
Read MoreSIM & CAB update
Today’s SIM steering committee meeting has been cancelled. (BTW- the Medicaid Council meeting scheduled for tomorrow has been postponed to next Friday, the 16th.) Tuesday’s SIM Consumer Advisory Board (CAB) meeting was frustrating. They were supposed to vote on an ethics resolution proposed last month, but delayed a vote yet again. (They sent it to…
Read MoreSIM update
CMMI announced Tuesday that Connecticut was among eleven states whose SIM application was approved. CT expects to receive $45 million over four years to support reform. The SIM Health IT Council will hold its first meeting today at 1pm at the LOB. Commissioner Bremby of DSS, which has been given responsibility for developing an Health…
Read MoreSIM discussion on how to cut the budget
In what was supposed to be a one-hour meeting, the SIM Steering Committee met yesterday to discuss how to cut the original $64m budget in the federal application down to $45m, as requested by CMMI. It was a poorly structured meeting that quickly led to a disorderly grab for money. Staff provided members with a…
Read MoreSIM decision to use national PCMH standards affirmed – again
At last night’s SIM Practice Transformation committee meeting, consumer advocates were able to halt erosion of national standards for patient-centered medical homes (PCMHs). Following research and best practices and resisting misinformation, in June the committee voted to use nationally recognized NCQA standards for PCMHs in SIM. NCQA-recognized PCMHs are the foundation of CT Medicaid’s remarkable…
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