Health

WASHINGTON--Under the new health care reform law, 76 percent of small businesses in Connecticut are now eligible for tax credits to help pay for health insurance, a benefit that will greatly expand access to health care, according to a new report this week from Families USA, a Washington-based consumer health care advocacy group.

Not so, retorted a leading lobby group for small businesses. The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) said that figure is vastly inflated and the tax credit will be a pittance for most small firms.

Welcome to the battle over public opinion on the health care reform law. Read more

Connecticut stands to see its Medicaid patient caseload surge starting in 2014 as national health care legislation opens the door to as many as 150,000 new patients over a six-year period, according to a new study.

And while there would be new federal funding to cover much of the added cost, there's no guarantee that patients will be able to find doctors unless state government moves now to reverse a dangerous shortage in primary care providers, health care advocates and one key state lawmaker said Thursday Read more

Ending the "fee for service" model that encourages doctors to schedule unnecessary tests and patient visits would be a crucial first step toward reducing a state health care bill that's among the highest in the nation, according to Democratic gubernatorial contender Ned Lamont.

The Greenwich businessman unveiled a health care plan this week that also would: expand efforts to allow physicians to determine state-covered patients' needs; improve health information technology systems; and offer financial incentives to state employees who stay in good shape. Read more

WASHINGTON -- For Aetna and other insurers, the battle over health-care reform is not over. It has just shifted to new decision-makers, a more obscure process, and a series of questions that are narrower, yet still significant.

Exhibit A in the ongoing lobbying fray is an effort to shape one of the most important regulations in the health-care overhaul law: a provision designed to ensure that most of consumers' premiums pay for actual medical care, not administrative costs or profits.

To that end, Congress mandated in the new law, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, that at least 80 to 85 percent of premiums must be used to pay for clinical care or activities that improve health care quality. If insurers fail to meet these thresholds, they will have to pay rebates to their customers-potentially costing them millions of dollars. Read more

Rosita Velez seems like just the sort of person federal lawmakers had in mind when they added to their sweeping health reforms a provision creating insurance pools for people who are uninsured and have serious health problems.

Velez, 34, of Bridgeport has not seen a doctor since losing her health benefits after being laid off by AT&T in 2008. She no longer fills the four prescriptions she needs for rheumatoid arthritis. Instead, Velez soaks her hands and feet in hot water.

"I just deal with the pain," Velez says.

Right now, it's unclear how much someone like Velez would have to pay in monthly premiums -- and whether she would be able to afford the new coverage option -- as state officials work out the details to implement the new program. Read more

In a last-minute turnabout, Gov. M. Jodi Rell is considering jettisoning Connecticut's plan to set up its own new health insurance program for people with serious health problems and instead letting the federal government run the program.

On the day the program was supposed to begin taking applications, Rell instead told top state officials to defer signing a contract with the federal Department of Health and Human Services that would have allowed Connecticut to set up a federally-funded, state-run high-risk insurance pool. Read more

State legislators Thursday heard tales of elderly patients left in bed for days, sitting for hours in urine and feces, and getting the wrong meals and medications at four nursing homes where the workers have been on strike for over two months.

And just in case two hours of testimony wasn't enough, the union representing the 375 striking workers passed out a booklet of resident's stories to members of the Human Services and Public Health committees. Read more

Thousands of nursing home workers will be asking for wage and benefit increases come March.

But their employers are largely funded by the state, and the state is broke.

"It's not likely we will be able to increase spending for nursing homes," said Rep. John Geragosian, D-New Britain, chairman of the Appropriations Committee. "They are unsustainable right now, and we have to rethink how we deliver these services." Read more

Connecticut has become the first state in the U.S. to take advantage of a provision in the new federal health reform law by adding nearly 45,000 low-income childless adults on Medicaid.

Prior to the federal health reform law states had to apply for temporary waivers to receive partial reimbursements for this population not otherwise eligible for Medicaid, but the state never applied. Read more