After a month without an adopted budget, the first round of cuts to human services agencies across state government took effect Tuesday. Much of the lost funding goes to nonprofit organizations the state contracts with to provide services to the mentally ill, the disabled, the poor, and those leaving prison.
Catherine Abercrombie
Posted inEducation
Growing wait list for child care subsidies taking its toll
Thousands of low-income families hoping to receive child care subsidies are stuck in limbo as a wait list for the program swells. The number could grow to 5,000 families by this summer, advocates say.
Posted inHealth
State delays controversial electronic system mandate for home health care
The state Department of Social Services has agreed to postpone the rollout of a new electronic system for home health agencies after an outcry among providers and threats to drop clients on Medicaid.
Posted inHealth
Home health agencies seek delay for electronic system
Home care agency leaders say a new electronic system the state’s Medicaid program requires them to use has been beset by problems and has led some agencies to consider phasing out service to Medicaid clients. But the state agency overseeing it says anecdotal information suggests it could be improving services.
Posted inHealth
Advocates give legislators a ‘mental health 101’
The dozen or so legislators who showed up heard personal stories and policy pitches. They got some advice and joking sympathy. It was one of the many ways lobbyists and advocates will try to make an impression on legislators in advance of next year’s session.
Posted inHealth, Politics
Malloy seeks to cut legislative authority over Medicaid changes
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s administration is seeking to eliminate legislators’ authority over certain attempts to make changes to Medicaid and other federally funded assistance programs – an authority legislators recently used to block a controversial administration proposal.
Posted inHealth
VIDEO: The public and personal sides of at-home caregiving
Along with sponsor AARP, The Connecticut Mirror hosts its third Google Hangout of the 2015 Connecticut legislative session to discuss caregiving. Joining host and Mirror Health Care Reporter Arielle Levin Becker are Rep. Catherine Abercrombie (D), Rep. Mitch Bolinsky (R), and Claudio W. Gualtieri, associate state director, advocacy, AARP Connecticut.
Posted inHealth, Politics
With protest, legislators move forward governor’s human services budget cuts
The legislature’s human services committee voted to move forward Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s proposed social services budget, but not before disowning the cuts within it and debating whether the way they handled the measure was a sufficient protest.