The legislature’s Republican minority argued Friday that Connecticut could avoid most of the painful tax hikes and social service cuts in Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s budget — and offer modest tax relief — by dramatically scaling back labor costs over the next two fiscal years.
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
Gavin to retire as Connecticut Children’s Medical Center CEO
Gavin, 65, has led the state’s only freestanding children’s hospital for nine years and will stay on until a successor is chosen, according to the hospital.
Posted inHealth
Still on hold: A solution for long DSS call-wait times
It took an average of 54 minutes for callers to reach a Department of Social Services worker by phone last month. That’s an improvement over February’s 70-minute average, and one of the lower average monthly wait times in the past year. But client advocates say it’s long past time things be improved in the phone system, which launched in July 2013 as part of a highly touted “modernization” initiative.
Posted inMoney
A guide to the budget: Where do your tax dollars go?
So what’s actually in the budget? Where do your tax dollars go? This guide will answer those questions for you.
Posted inHealth, Politics
Should the state set new rules for hospital-insurer contract disputes?
Would binding arbitration or a “cooling-off period” help to avert the protracted contract disputes that can lead hospitals and insurers to threaten to sever ties, worrying patients? Or would they simply add more burdens to negotiations that usually get settled by the deadline?
Posted inMoney
Track the budget: Taxes and fees
The new state budget takes effect today. Here are the key spending cuts and tax increases, and a look at the process that led to them.
Posted inHealth, Politics
After providers complain, lawmakers consider changes to Medicaid audits
Legislators are considering changes to the way the state audits Medicaid payments to health care providers, who have complained for years that the process penalizes honest errors and can lead to costs dramatically higher than any identified mistakes. One independent pharmacist got involved in pushing for change after an audit of his drug store found $268 worth of problematic prescriptions — and he faced a penalty of $144,814.
Posted inHealth
Some Obamacare customers will need to file for tax extensions
Some customers of Connecticut’s health insurance exchange say problems with the exchange-generated forms they need to file their taxes have left them unable to file their taxes just days before the deadline. If you’re in that situation, here’s what to do.
Posted inHealth, Money
As developmentally disabled face cuts, Southbury Training School under renewed scrutiny
Legislators are eyeing overtime costs at Southbury Training School as a way to save money in the tight budget for serving people with intellectual or developmental disabilities, but officials at the agency that runs the institution say those savings are unlikely to be achieved.
Posted inHealth, Money
Nursing home workers vote to strike, send message to both employers and lawmakers
Workers at 27 nursing homes have voted to strike later this month, a move aimed at both their employers and state lawmakers wrangling over a state budget that has significant implications for nursing homes.
Posted inHealth, Money, Politics
Is it a gag order or the Malloy administration speaking with one voice?
Key legislators say a directive from budget director Benjamin Barnes restricting what agency heads can tell legislators about Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s budget proposal is hindering lawmakers in doing their jobs and will push more of the budget-writing process behind closed doors. Barnes says the administration simply works together “as one administration, with all our commissioners and agency heads.”
Posted inHealth
Medicaid ob-gyn fee cuts worry doctors, advocates
The state’s Medicaid program is cutting payment rates for doctors who provide pregnancy care, perform deliveries and women’s preventive services, leading medical groups and advocates to worry that it could become harder for low-income pregnant women to find doctors to treat them.
Posted inHealth
Mental health cuts threaten treatment system, providers say
Mental health and substance abuse treatment providers say they’re planning to limit access to programs if a proposed $25.5 million cut to grant funding goes through. A recent analysis by the state Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services says even with more insured clients, the providers will only be able to make up a fraction of the proposed grant cuts. But the governor’s budget director said funding those grants is “a luxury that we can’t afford right now.”
Posted inHealth
Delphin-Rittmon promoted to lead mental health department
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy has named a clinical psychologist with experience working in state and federal mental health agencies to lead the state Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services.
Posted inHealth
The special Obamacare sign-up period: What you need to know
The deadline to sign up for private insurance under the federal health law this year is long past, but some state residents who are currently uninsured will have a 30-day window to sign up for plans during April — if they meet certain criteria. Here are the details.
