State officials are now expecting Connecticut to receive $44.2 million more than initially projected for low-income energy assistance–enough to break an end-of-year stalemate between Gov. M. Jodi Rell and the legislature over funding for the program, but perhaps not enough to carry it through the winter. The money for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance […]

Gov.-elect Dan Malloy has reappointed Patricia Rehmer to serve as commissioner of the state Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services, a post she has held since last year. Patricia Rehmer Rehmer joined the agency in 1999 and served as deputy commissioner from 2004 to 2009. A nurse by training, Rehmer has also worked at […]

The SustiNet board on Wednesday endorsed plans for an expansive public health insurance plan, recommending that the state join state employees and retirees and Medicaid recipients into one health insurance pool, then make it available to anyone in Connecticut by 2014. Many of the items the board endorsed have long been central to the concept […]

Governor-elect Dan Malloy joined dozens of clergy and hundreds of people rallying for universal health care Tuesday evening, the night before a key vote on plans for the SustiNet health partnership. The rally at Emanuel Lutheran Church in Hartford was held by the Interfaith Fellowship for Universal Health Care, a group of clergy that has […]

About four years ago, Dr. Prasad Srinivasan began taking Wednesdays off from his Glastonbury practice and seeing patients on Saturdays. The move wasn’t about finding time for midweek golf. He did it because the state legislature is most often in session on Wednesdays, and Srinivasan had been eyeing a seat there for years. Dr. Prasad […]

Emergency department visits in the state increased by nearly 10 percent between the 2006 and 2009 fiscal years, and a large portion of the visits weren’t emergencies, according to a report by the state Office of Health Care Access. The report examined the approximately 85 percent of emergency department visits that do not result in […]

The heads of the three insurance companies in the HUSKY program said Friday that they are not attempting to lower the rates they pay doctors and hospitals below previously allowed levels, even though their contracts with the state now permit it. But that did not appear to reassure members of the council that oversees HUSKY, […]

Connecticut and five other states funded more than $1.25 billion in stem cell research between 2005 and 2009–more than the National Institutes of Health, according to an analysis by researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology. But the states varied widely in the type of research they funded. Connecticut by far funded the most research […]

The U.S. House of Representatives voted Thursday to delay a scheduled 25 percent Medicare payment cut for one year. If President Obama signs the bill as expected, it will mark the sixth time this year that Medicare cuts have been staved off. The move drew praise from doctors and patient groups who worried that the […]

Members of the public got their chance to weigh in on the SustiNet plan this week, and their questions and comments offered a hint at what could lie ahead as policymakers attempt to create a public health insurance plan for the state. Many of those who spoke at presentations in New Haven and Hartford identified […]

Politicians looking to woo older constituents of all political stripes should consider pushing for an extended delay to scheduled cuts in Medicare payments to doctors, according to a survey of AARP members released Monday. Of the 809 Connecticut AARP members surveyed, 84 percent said they were somewhat or very concerned that doctors might stop treating […]

A dozen people sat in the church basement, now serving as a makeshift waiting room. Their clinic was parked outside. The Malta House of Care, a medical clinic aboard a 36-foot Winnebago, provides free health care to uninsured residents. Four afternoons a week, it parks outside a different Hartford church and takes patients on a […]

The Connecticut Insurance Department has more authority to review proposed health insurance rate hikes than its counterparts in many other states. But legal authority doesn’t always translate into strict regulation or consumer protection, according to a report released Thursday by the Kaiser Family Foundation. The report cited a lack of staff resources and tight timelines […]

Acting Insurance Commissioner Barbara C. Spear has rejected Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield’s request to raise premiums by 19.9 percent for individual health insurance policies, agreeing with a hearing officer’s conclusion that the requested rate hike was excessive. The ruling, released Friday, follows a contentious public hearing last month that drew criticism of both […]

Congress has voted to temporarily avert a 23 percent cut in Medicare payments to doctors that was scheduled to take effect this week, postponing the cut for another month. But that might not be enough to keep Connecticut doctors from limiting the number of Medicare patients they see, according to a new survey by the […]