Chances are, if you’re a patient in Connecticut, your doctor enters your medical information into a laptop or tablet and sends your prescriptions to the pharmacy electronically. But if you end up in an emergency room, there’s a good chance your records will have to get there the old-fashioned way: by fax. Legislators are trying to change that, but not everyone agrees on what the state needs.
health care roundtable
Posted inHealth, Politics
Will lawmakers take action on changing health care landscape?
Senate leaders are pushing forward with a package of controversial proposals aimed at increasing transparency in health care costs and quality, and giving the state more levers to address the growth of large health systems that control multiple hospitals and physician practices. But it’s still unclear exactly what shape it will take — or how much support it will have in the House.
Posted inHealth
In controversial health care bills, some agreement on transparency
Patients are increasingly being asked to take on a larger share of their health care costs. But for even the most avid bargain-hunters, comparison shopping for medical care can be a challenge, if not impossible. Can legislation change that?
Posted inHealth
Legislators grappling with fast-changing health care landscape
The health care landscape is changing, and legislators are trying to figure out how to respond to an industry that is at once a top employer in many communities and a big driver of health care costs that are straining state, local and business budgets. Hospital officials say some of the proposals so far would take the state backwards.
Posted inHealth
As hospitals buy medical practices, patients face thousands of dollars in new charges
At first, the $4,000 medical bill didn’t worry Susan Ferro. She was certain it was a mistake. Two years ago, when she’d gone to the same radiology office for the same procedure — a needle aspiration biopsy of a lump in her breast — Ferro’s insurance paid. But when Ferro called the doctor’s office, she […]
