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.
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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
Posted inHealth
In hospitals, sleep and patient satisfaction may go hand in hand
As hospitals chase better patient ratings and health outcomes, an increasing number are rethinking how they function at night so more patients can sleep relatively uninterrupted.
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Respite center’s closure highlights frustrations for families of the disabled
Founders’ Cottage, a Norwalk respite center that gives families who care for adult children with developmental disabilities an occasional break, is closing next month, and its loss taps into a deeper frustration over years of cuts to services and a shortage of residential placements for people with developmental disabilities.
Posted inHealth
Thousands of Obamacare customers at risk of losing coverage or subsidies
More than 7,000 customers of Connecticut’s health insurance exchange must provide additional documentation to maintain their coverage or the tax credits that subsidize their premiums – a process that has already led to confusion and, in some cases, lost coverage or subsidies, exchange CEO Jim Wadleigh said Tuesday.
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Business, GOP question change on families’ out-of-pocket caps
Some employers say the administration is unfairly changing the rules that determine how much consumers can be required to pay out of pocket for medical care each year, and they’re worried it will cost them more.
