The idea of a single health information exchange across the state of Connecticut seems simple: Gather all health information in one place and make it available to every practitioner involved with a single patient to provide the best care possible. Unfortunately, in Connecticut this process has been anything but simple. Instead, it has been enormously expensive and time-consuming — costing the state $23 million and 11 years of work which, to this date, have yet to produce an exchange.
A decade of delays, $23 million spent, as state makes fourth try for health information exchange
Posted inPolitics
Lamont offers tax relief in jobs plan, but no plan to pay for it
Democratic gubernatorial nominee Ned Lamont unveiled a jobs plan Wednesday centered on three business tax cuts — and a previously disclosed middle-class income tax break — none of which he could provide without solving a much-larger state budget deficit.
Posted inPolitics
New ‘atlas’ tracks social media sentiment for Lamont, Stefanowski, other candidates
WASHINGTON – A new political tool that tracks sentiment on social media every day showed that more people said nice things about Democratic gubernatorial candidate Ned Lamont than his Republican rival Bob Stefanowski . But the Political Atlas said Stefanowski had Lamont beat when it came to “favorability” which also took into account how many times his name was mentioned on social media.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
We all bear the cost of evictions
On September 5, the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center in Hartford awarded its annual Stowe Prize to writer and professor Matthew Desmond, whose work highlights the impact of evictions on poor people in America. Desmond is the author of the 2017 Pulitzer Prize winning book Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City, which follows eight families facing eviction in Milwaukee, WI. The real genius of Desmond’s contribution ) is that it highlights the ways in which the costs of evictions, although brutally imposed on the poor, are also borne by the wider community. This includes Hartford, which has one of the nation’s highest eviction rates.
Posted inEnergy & Environment, Politics
Opponents of Plum Island sale making gains
Washington – A coalition of environmental groups that oppose the federal government’s plan to sell Plum Island to the highest bidder are making progress on several fronts. The federal government has agreed to conduct a new environmental impact study of the proposed sale on the island’s diverse flora and fauna, while several bills that would block the sale are under consideration in Congress.
Posted inHealth
CT hospitals collect $1.2B in outpatient facility fees over three years
Connecticut hospitals and health networks have received an estimated $1.2 billion in outpatient facility fees from 2015 through 2017, according to data announced on Tuesday. These fees are collected for a wide-range of services, including oncology, eye surgery, psychotherapy and primary care, provided at off-site facilities run by hospitals and health networks.
Posted inNews
CT cybersecurity: ‘We cannot rely on Washington to keep us safe’
The leader of Connecticut’s cybersecurity efforts said Tuesday that Washington, with a deeply polarized Congress and faction-riven White House, has abrogated its role in defending the nation’s electrical grid, natural gas system and public water supplies against hackers that are growing bolder, more numerous and more sophisticated.
Posted inJustice
DOC health care workers call on gubernatorial candidates to fill staff vacancies
Department of Correction health care workers stood in the pouring rain outside a Hartford prison Tuesday to rally against staffing vacancies and demand an agreement from gubernatorial and legislative candidates to fill empty jobs they say are undermining quality inmate care.
Posted inEducation, Money, Politics
Ben Barnes under consideration for higher-education post
Ben Barnes, who has overseen Connecticut’s budget as the secretary of the Office of Policy and Management from the first days of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s administration, is on a short list of candidates interviewed for the vacant post of chief financial officer at the state’s system of community colleges and regional universities.
Posted inEducation
New tax break for private K-12 tuition begins this school year
A classroom at a private school in Connecticut A new state tax break is available this school year to help parents pay for private K-12 school tuition – a development triggered by the federal tax overhaul. The state has for years allowed parents to avoid paying state income taxes on up to $10,000 each year […]
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Community action: Helping people, strengthening communities
As residents across Connecticut struggle to make ends meet in one of the richest states in the nation, our Community Action Agency (CAA) Network is on their side. Through critical Community Services Block Grant (CSBG) funding, CAAs — the state and federal designated antipoverty agencies— provide cost-efficient and programmatic-effective essential, basic human needs services like food, shelter, heating assistance, employment and training, and child care to the state’s low and moderate income communities in all 169 cities and towns.
Posted inPolitics
A night of zingers courtesy of Stefanowski and Lamont
NEW HAVEN — The Republican and Democratic candidates for governor pummeled each other in their second televised debate Monday, offering practiced one-liners that energized a Shubert Theater audience dominated by Realtors, while giving voters little new information on how either would close a projected deficit of $2.1 billion awaiting the next governor.
Posted inJustice, Politics
Kavanaugh and alleged victim of assault to testify before Senate panel
A handful of Connecticut female candidates joined other Democrats Monday calling for an investigation into the complaint that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted a 15-year-old girl at a high school party decades ago.
Posted inMoney
Report says pension boards share blame for states’ widening debt
While past governors legislatures and governors get much of the blame for Connecticut’s massive pension debt, a new analysis says politically appointed oversight boards should share the heat both here and in other states.
Posted inPolitics
CT cities and towns press candidates for mandate relief
The Connecticut Conference of Municipalities challenged candidates for state office Monday to address more than 1,300 mandates placed on city and town budgets.