EOHHS Secretary Bibgy held a stakeholder briefing on the state fiscal challenges on Wednesday afternoon. Read yesterday’s Commonhealth blog for more details.
Secretary Bigby highlighted the principles her agency would be following in planning for potential budget reductions. Among them:
Secretary Bigby highlighted the need to align any budget cuts with her agencies FY09 strategic priorities, including homelessness prevention, the Community First Program, health service rate reform and the rationalizing of health care costs.
HCFA appreciates the transparency of the Administration as the state enters tougher financial times. We also appreciate the opportunity to give suggestions for addressing the fiscal challenges and encourage all to voice their concerns and suggestions. There will be a briefing on Thursday at 10AM and on Friday at 9AM, both in the 21st floor of One Ashburton Place. Both briefings will be geared towards human services.
Funny. It’s been 3 days and no mention of Commonwealth Care enrollees using and abusing the ER system. I think the report in the Globe/Herald was that they use the ER roughly 15- 25% more often than people that actually pay for insurance. These ER visits are far more costly than primary care fees.
So not only don’t they pay for the bulk of their premium, they use the most expensive care possible. All you’ve written about it how helpful your helpline is in assisting these people in getting coverage. Do you bother to tell them how to best utilize their insurance? Do you bother to tell them that people with insurance don’t use the ER as primary care?
Why wasn’t there a blog entry on this?
http://www.slate.com/id/2199645/
There is a new study showing nationwide the increase in ER use is from insured patients