Deborah R. Hoyt

If Connecticut residents are wondering what Connecticut’s “secret sauce” is to rank us tops in efficient Medicaid spending, it’s a combination of Inadequate and flat Medicaid reimbursement to home health providers, a State Plan Amendment cutting Medicaid behavioral home health nursing rates by 15 percent and other factors — all at the suffering and demise of our Medicaid provider community.

Gov. Dannel Malloy’s Executive Order calls for a 5-10 percent reimbursement cut to non-profits as well as eliminating “add-on” payments to Medicaid home health providers serving the State’s most vulnerable in our inner cities. The financial impact of this action hurts Connecticut, its taxpayers, and our Medicaid program by jeopardizing the viability of the cost-effective healthcare provider network that creates a state savings of more than $100-million each year for the CT Dept. of Social Services (DSS).