A compromise proposal that passed the Senate last week would extend workers’ compensation benefits to police who experience mental health problems stemming from responding to a death caused by a person, but not those related to handling fatal car accidents. Mental health professionals say the distinction might make sense politically, but it makes little sense medically.
Arielle Levin Becker
Arielle Levin Becker covered health care for The Connecticut Mirror. She previously worked for The Hartford Courant, most recently as its health reporter, and has also covered small towns, courts and education in Connecticut and New Jersey. She was a finalist in 2009 for the prestigious Livingston Award for Young Journalists, a recipient of a Knight Science Journalism Fellowship and the third-place winner in 2013 for an in-depth piece on caregivers from the National Association of Health Journalists. She is a 2004 graduate of Yale University.
Posted inHealth, Politics
Senate passes major health care bill, but fate in House uncertain
The state Senate Thursday night passed an expansive bill aimed at influencing the state’s fast-changing health care landscape, a measure driven largely by the Senate leaders’ concerns about large hospital systems gaining too much market power and driving up costs. But a key House Democrat said that’s unlikely to be the final version.
Posted inHealth
Vermont officials eyeing CT’s health insurance exchange
Updated 2:55 p.m. Vermont officials are considering turning to Connecticut’s health insurance exchange as an alternative to that state’s struggling Obamacare marketplace.
Posted inMoney, Politics
A symbolic victory for casino expansion
The state Senate approved the consolation prize late Wednesday for those hoping to see a new casino authorized to combat growing competition from gambling facilities in neighboring states — particularly one to open in Springfield in 2017. The bill, which now heads to the House of Representatives, instead establishes a search process for a potential host community for a new casino — and requires the legislature to revisit the matter one year from now.
Posted inHealth, Politics
The doctor is online, and lawmakers are prescribing some rules
Joanna Leach didn’t have time to get to the doctor to check out her lingering cold. So she flipped open her laptop, signed up for a service and was soon face-to-face — or screen-to-screen — with a doctor in another state, who diagnosed her and prescribed medication. That form of health care — known as telemedicine — is expected to become more common, and an attempt by legislators to regulate it has brought forward a debate on the shape it should take.
Posted inHealth, Politics
Can the state build a better system to get your medical records to your doctors?
Chances are, if you’re a patient in Connecticut, your doctor enters your medical information into a laptop or tablet and sends your prescriptions to the pharmacy electronically. But if you end up in an emergency room, there’s a good chance your records will have to get there the old-fashioned way: by fax. Legislators are trying to change that, but not everyone agrees on what the state needs.
Posted inHealth
Access Health CT sees fiscal stability while other exchanges struggle
Though the state’s health exchange soon will consider boosting insurance assessments, Access Health CT officials said Tuesday Connecticut’s program is on sound financial footing – unlike many other state exchanges.
Posted inHealth
The Basics: A bill aimed at helping caregivers when patients leave the hospital
Sen. Dante Bartolomeo drove her grandmother home from the hospital last summer thinking she was prepared to continue providing her care. But when she drove into the garage and tried to help her grandmother use her walker, she realized there was a problem: No one at the hospital had mentioned that her grandmother was no longer able to walk.
Posted inHealth
Individual health insurance rate hike proposals: See your plan
Wondering if your health insurance company wants to raise your rates next year? Here’s a list of Connecticut’s individual market plans and how their rates would change if regulators approve the companies’ proposals for 2016.
Posted inHealth
Insurers seek rate hikes for 2016 Obamacare plans, but expect members’ health to stabilize
Insurance companies selling health plans through the state’s health insurance exchange are seeking to raise rates next year, with average increases between 2 percent and nearly 14 percent. But the companies are expecting the medical needs of those newly insured under the federal health law to stabilize.
Posted inHealth
Obamacare special enrollment period draws 1,429 new customers
The special sign-up period was intended for people who didn’t have coverage this year and paid a penalty on their taxes for not having coverage last year either.
Posted inHealth
Waterbury Hospital has new plans to be purchased, turn for-profit
Waterbury Hospital has plans to be acquired by a private Los Angeles-based health care company, the latest move in the hospital’s quest for long-term stability.
Posted inHealth
CT officials see targeting trauma as key to improving health
Experts say exposure to trauma and significant stress early in life can have profound effects on children’s development. Those running Connecticut’s Medicaid program see the impact in another way too. “We pay for a lot of medical and behavioral health services, and chances are many of those are as a result of children and/or adults who have experienced childhood trauma,” William Halsey, a state social services official, said Monday.
Posted inHealth, Politics
Will lawmakers take action on changing health care landscape?
Senate leaders are pushing forward with a package of controversial proposals aimed at increasing transparency in health care costs and quality, and giving the state more levers to address the growth of large health systems that control multiple hospitals and physician practices. But it’s still unclear exactly what shape it will take — or how much support it will have in the House.
Posted inEducation, Health, Money
Budget panel would blow by spending cap to restore social service, education funds
The legislature’s budget-writing panel recommended adding $514 million in spending to Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s plan — and embraced a radical new interpretation of the constitutional spending cap — primarily to bolster human services and education.