Search results for: cost cap
Drug forum looks for state options to control costs
Yesterday’s forum on rising drug costs at the Capitol included the expected messages from the expected sources but the real news was in the second panel that offered solutions. The CT State Medical Society and the State Comptroller’s Office sponsored the forum. Dr. Jacobs, President of CSMS, laid out the problem. One medication that supports…
Read MoreCT remains costly for Long Term Services and Supports while demand grows
A new survey by Genworth Financial finds that costs for Long Term Services and Support in Connecticut are among the highest in the nation, and rising. At $146,000 for a semi-private room and $158,775 for a private room, median annual costs of nursing home care were more expensive in Connecticut last year than any other…
Read MoreFascinating Health Care Cabinet meeting on hospital markets, concentration, costs and the magic of VT
This week’s Health Care Cabinet meeting was fascinating. We first heard about the impact of hospital consolidations in CT. We heard a moving story about a Spanish-speaking woman suffering a mild stroke who had to be airlifted from Windham to Hartford because since Hartford Hospital’s acquisition of Windham Hospital, there is no longer a neurologist…
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 MoreCare delivered by CT family members worth $5.9 billion, but capacity is uncertain
In 2013 almost half a million CT residents provided 427 million hours of unpaid critical health care services to family members according to an updatedreport by AARP. The value of that care was $5.9 billion, about what CT spends on Medicaid in total. Family care is expanding and becoming a vital piece of our health…
Read MoreWebinar: Caring for High-Need, High-Cost Patients – Lessons for Connecticut
Join us Monday, June 22nd at 2pm for a webinar on best practices in complex care management for the most fragile and costly patients. Evidence is growing that we cannot fix our health care system without addressing the needs of the small number of patients with very complex and costly health problems. Luckily CT can…
Read MoreWebinar: Caring for High-Need, High-Cost Patients – Lessons for Connecticut
Join us Monday, June 22nd at 2pm for a webinar on best practices in complex care management for the most fragile and costly patients. Evidence is growing that we cannot fix our health care system without addressing the needs of the small number of patients with very complex and costly health problems. Luckily CT can…
Read MoreMedicaid quality up, costs stable since switch to ASO
We got lots of good news at today’s Medicaid Council meeting. New financial reports show that since October of 2013 HUSKY enrollment has grown 20% but spending has grown only 13.6%. Per person spending on HUSKY Part D, which includes the former SAGA members and the newly eligible childless adults from the ACA, has actually…
Read MoreValue over Volume 2.0 – twenty three tools for state policymakers to improve quality and control costs
Health care costs consume nearly a quarter of state budgets, and that share is rising at a rate that policymakers agree is unsustainable. Evidence shows that our runaway spending is not driving improved quality, and that lasting reform will require a shift from a volume-based system to one based on value. The good news is…
Read MoreCT’s Medicaid success: Access and quality are up, costs are down
Since 2012, when CT’s Medicaid program shifted from a capitated payment model to a self-insured model based on care coordination, the program has enjoyed significant improvements in quality, access and cost control, as predicted. A new analysis finds that the number of providers participating the in the program is up 32%, person-centered medical homes are up…
Read More