High-deductible health plans, which are increasingly common, don’t just require people to pay more when they get care; they also leave people with more to understand, from figuring out how much care costs to handling bills that aren’t always clear. Here are some tips from experts on how to manage a high-deductible plan. This story is the latest in a series on how to better navigate the health care system.
Health
Stories about health care access and affordability in CT, as well as abortion, COVID, health equity and disparities, health systems and social determinants of health.
Dive Deeper: Abortion · Access Health CT · COVID-19 · CT Rural Hospitals
Posted inHealth
With 10 days left, ConnectiCare leads exchange sign-ups
ConnectiCare continues to lead the market among customers of Connecticut’s health insurance exchange, with 52 percent of the nearly 109,000 people signed up so far for 2016 coverage.
Posted inHealth
CT insurance exchange to tighten sign-up rule
Connecticut’s health insurance exchange plans to get tougher on those seeking to sign up for private insurance coverage outside the open enrollment period, following concerns that people signing up midyear have been driving up costs for insurers.
Posted inHealth
Workplace depression under-recognized, expensive, treatable
Depression can take a big toll on workplaces, but too often, it remains hidden and unaddressed, according to mental health and employment experts.
Posted inHealth, Politics
Blumenthal: Bill would speed generic drug approval, reducing costs
U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., plans to introduce legislation intended to speed up FDA approval of generic prescription drugs and combat the “astronomic rise” in the cost of health care, he said Tuesday.
Posted inHealth
DPH asks providers to report suspected Zika virus cases
Connecticut has not had any reported cases of the disease, which is spread by mosquitoes that are not found in the state.
Posted inHealth
Spending and enrollment up, but Medicaid per-person cost is down
Connecticut’s Medicaid program is projected to cost the state and federal government more than $6 billion this year, and it covers close to one in five state residents, a dramatic growth from a decade ago. But underneath the rising cost and enrollment trends, something else has been happening: The average per-person costs have been falling – particularly among those newly eligible for coverage under the federal health law.
Posted inHealth
Social Services Commissioner Bremby doesn’t get Kansas job
Social Services Commissioner Roderick L. Bremby won’t be leaving Connecticut for a post in Kansas. Although Bremby was a finalist to become city manager of Lawrence, Kan., the city commission selected another candidate Thursday.
Posted inHealth
CT to study other states to target health costs, market changes
As part of a major new health care law, a state board has until December to recommend ways to address rising health care costs and market changes.
Posted inHealth
Coming soon to your mailbox: An Obamacare tax form
Even if you don’t get your health insurance through the federal health law, you’re likely to get the form, which is part of the way the federal government verifies whether people are complying with the mandate that nearly all Americans have health care coverage. Here’s what you need to know.
Posted inHealth
How well will new rules on health care cost transparency work?
Lisa Freeman recently tried an experiment: Before having a medical diagnostic test, she tried to figure out what it would cost. “It took no less than five phone calls, and I still never got to the end of the thing,” she said. A major transparency law intended to change that is taking effect this year. How will it work in practice? Health care providers say it might be bumpy at first.
Posted inEducation, Energy & Environment, Health, Money, Politics
ICYMI: Our look at Connecticut politics and policy in 2015
Here is the CTMirror.org’s take on that hoariest of journalistic conventions, the year in review. It’s a mix of the important, the interesting, the surprising and, perhaps, the little-noticed things we shared in 2015 from the world of politics and public policy in Connecticut.
Posted inEducation, Health, Money
Auditors: UConn Health paid $192,500 to resigning CEO
UConn Health paid $192,500 to the former John Dempsey Hospital CEO who chose to resign because of a pending reorganization – a waste of resources, state auditors wrote in a report released Wednesday.
Posted inEducation, Energy & Environment, Health, Justice, Money
Malloy releases agency-by-agency breakdown of budget cuts
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s administration released details late Wednesday on how state agencies will share the new spending reductions ordered by the legislature in a December special session.
Posted inHealth
Five stories that can make 2016 a big year in health care
“I haven’t seen a time in my almost 10 years here in the state where there’s so much happening in health care,” says state Healthcare Advocate Victoria Veltri. Here are five health care stories to watch in 2016.