The legislature’s budget-writing panel recommended adding $514 million in spending to Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s plan — and embraced a radical new interpretation of the constitutional spending cap — primarily to bolster human services and education.
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, Money, Politics
GOP: Seek big labor savings to reduce Malloy’s painful cuts
The legislature’s Republican minority argued Friday that Connecticut could avoid most of the painful tax hikes and social service cuts in Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s budget — and offer modest tax relief — by dramatically scaling back labor costs over the next two fiscal years.
Posted inHealth
Gavin to retire as Connecticut Children’s Medical Center CEO
Gavin, 65, has led the state’s only freestanding children’s hospital for nine years and will stay on until a successor is chosen, according to the hospital.
Posted inHealth
Still on hold: A solution for long DSS call-wait times
It took an average of 54 minutes for callers to reach a Department of Social Services worker by phone last month. That’s an improvement over February’s 70-minute average, and one of the lower average monthly wait times in the past year. But client advocates say it’s long past time things be improved in the phone system, which launched in July 2013 as part of a highly touted “modernization” initiative.
Posted inHealth, Politics
Should the state set new rules for hospital-insurer contract disputes?
Would binding arbitration or a “cooling-off period” help to avert the protracted contract disputes that can lead hospitals and insurers to threaten to sever ties, worrying patients? Or would they simply add more burdens to negotiations that usually get settled by the deadline?
Posted inHealth, Politics
Despite reservations, CT senators join in approving ‘doc fix’ bill
WASHINGTON — While they had reservations about some provisions of the bill, Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy joined an overwhelming majority in the U.S. Senate to approve a bill preventing a 21 percent cut in Medicare fees for doctors.
Posted inHealth, Money, Politics
Nursing home strike postponed at Malloy’s request
A healthcare union closely allied with Gov. Dannel P. Malloy announced Tuesday it has acceded to a request by the governor for a postponement of a nursing home strike by 3,500 workers in 20 communities.
Posted inHealth, Politics
After providers complain, lawmakers consider changes to Medicaid audits
Legislators are considering changes to the way the state audits Medicaid payments to health care providers, who have complained for years that the process penalizes honest errors and can lead to costs dramatically higher than any identified mistakes. One independent pharmacist got involved in pushing for change after an audit of his drug store found $268 worth of problematic prescriptions — and he faced a penalty of $144,814.
Posted inHealth
Some Obamacare customers will need to file for tax extensions
Some customers of Connecticut’s health insurance exchange say problems with the exchange-generated forms they need to file their taxes have left them unable to file their taxes just days before the deadline. If you’re in that situation, here’s what to do.
Posted inHealth, Money
As developmentally disabled face cuts, Southbury Training School under renewed scrutiny
Legislators are eyeing overtime costs at Southbury Training School as a way to save money in the tight budget for serving people with intellectual or developmental disabilities, but officials at the agency that runs the institution say those savings are unlikely to be achieved.
Posted inHealth, Money
Nursing home workers vote to strike, send message to both employers and lawmakers
Workers at 27 nursing homes have voted to strike later this month, a move aimed at both their employers and state lawmakers wrangling over a state budget that has significant implications for nursing homes.
Posted inHealth, Money, Politics
Is it a gag order or the Malloy administration speaking with one voice?
Key legislators say a directive from budget director Benjamin Barnes restricting what agency heads can tell legislators about Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s budget proposal is hindering lawmakers in doing their jobs and will push more of the budget-writing process behind closed doors. Barnes says the administration simply works together “as one administration, with all our commissioners and agency heads.”
Posted inHealth
Medicaid ob-gyn fee cuts worry doctors, advocates
The state’s Medicaid program is cutting payment rates for doctors who provide pregnancy care, perform deliveries and women’s preventive services, leading medical groups and advocates to worry that it could become harder for low-income pregnant women to find doctors to treat them.
Posted inHealth, Money, Politics
As legislators struggle with human services cuts, are tax hikes coming?
Besides living with a sense of panic and staying up at night worrying, Marina Derman has been in advocacy mode lately, trying to convince lawmakers to salvage the program she says saved her family from crisis. She’s one of many people waiting for a resolution to the next state budget. Many legislators have criticized the deep cuts to health care and social services in the governor’s proposed spending plan, but it’s not yet clear how they plan to address the looming $1.3 billion deficit while avoiding cuts some have called untenable.
Posted inHealth, Money, Politics
House Democrats step off on long, difficult road to a state budget
Majority Democrats in the House of Representatives tried Tuesday afternoon to get their arms around the daunting deficits facing state finances. But after two hours behind closed doors, they left still trying.
