The U.S. Census Bureau’s estimates released Wednesday indicate that the uninsured rate fell in all 50 states and the District of Columbia from 2013 to 2014. Connecticut was one of six states that, along with Washington D.C., had an uninsured rate at or below 7 percent.
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.
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Posted inHealth
Medicare yet to save money with heralded payment model
A high-profile Medicare experiment pushing doctors and hospitals to join together to operate more efficiently has yet to save the government money, with nearly half of the groups costing more than the government estimated their patients would normally cost, federal records show.
Posted inHealth, Money
Few who lost Medicaid have purchased insurance
When state lawmakers scaled back Medicaid eligibility for thousands of low-income parents to help balance this year’s budget, proponents argued the parents could buy deeply discounted coverage through the state’s health insurance exchange. But so far, fewer than 20 percent of those who lost coverage at the start of this month have signed up.
Posted inHealth, Politics
Congress scrutinizes Aetna-Humana and Anthem-Cigna deals
WASHINGTON– Congressional Republicans are blaming a wave of mergers and other types of consolidation by hospitals, pharmaceuticals and insurers, on the Affordable Care Act. That new interest in consolidation on the health care field is bringing unwanted political attention to the proposed Aetna-Humana and Anthem-Cigna mergers.
Posted inHealth
Buy your own health insurance? Here’s how your premiums will change next year
Insurance prices will change in 2016 for the nearly 170,000 Connecticut residents who buy their own health plans. So what will people be paying? Here’s a look, broken down in two ways.
Posted inHealth
Mental health agencies take on larger role coordinating all care
The fitness group walked in loops on the path with 51-year-old member Cindy as its unofficial cheerleader, But this is not a typical exercise group. It’s part of a statewide effort to bring together mental and physical health care for thousands of people with serious mental illness, chronic medical conditions and high health care costs. Second of two stories.
Posted inHealth
Anthem individual rates to rise 2.4%, ConnectiCare’s by 8.5%
Premiums for the 55,000 people who buy Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield health plans through the state’s individual market will rise by an average of 2.4 percent next year, while ConnectiCare Insurance Company’s 34,400 customers will see an average rate hike of 8.5 percent.
Posted inHealth
In some primary care offices: The social worker will see you now
For years, health care experts have recommended better connecting primary care and mental health. Efforts to do so have lagged, but some experts now say they see momentum picking up. First of two stories.
Posted inHealth, Money, Politics
UConn, auditors clash over responsibility for financing plan
The controversial financing of a $200 million outpatient facility at the University of Connecticut Health Center is the center of a dispute between the state auditors and the university.
Posted inHealth, Money
Obamacare and hospital finances, in nine charts
What really happened to hospitals since Obamacare’s 2010 passage? To find out, we looked at recently released financial data from the 2014 fiscal year, the first after the major coverage expansion provisions of the health law took effect.
Posted inHealth
Vatican (and state DPH) bless St. Francis hospital merger
Church and state have given final approval to a merger that will join St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center of Hartford with Trinity Health, a national Catholic health care system of 86 hospitals in 21 states.
Posted inHealth
Uptick in denials for home nursing care worries families, advocates
Families and advocates say they are concerned by a recent sharp rise in the rate of denials for extended home nursing care that helps families caring for young people with significant medical needs.
Posted inHealth
Regulator lowers most proposed health insurance rate hikes
Most insurance companies selling health plans in the state’s individual market will get to raise customers’ premiums in 2016, but not by as much as they proposed, and one major carrier will have to lower its rates, according to decisions released by the Connecticut Insurance Department Saturday.
Posted inHealth
Almost all CT Hospitals Face Readmissions Penalties
All but one of Connecticut’s acute-care hospitals will have their Medicare reimbursement reduced in 2015-16 as a penalty for high readmissions of discharged patients, new federal data show.
Posted inHealth
Insurer coaches the newly covered through the health system
For those who gained coverage under Obamacare, learning to navigate the health care system can take more than an insurance card. This is the third in an occasional series of stories on health care issues in the wake of the Affordable Care Act.