Women's Rally PVD

Can't get to DC on January 21st?

The R.I. Women’s Solidarity Rally will take place at the R.I. State House on January 21, 2017.

EVENT 1 p.m. – 3 p.m.

LOCATION R.I. State House, South Lawn, Gaspee & Francis Streets, Providence, R.I.

EVENT PURPOSE

To stand in solidarity with the Women’s March on Washington, who say:

“We stand together in solidarity with our partners and children for

the protection of our rights, our safety, our health, and our families –

recognizing that our vibrant and diverse communities are the strength

of our country.”

For more information:

Let them know you're coming.

Health Insurers List Demands if Affordable Care Act Is Killed

By REED ABELSON
The New York Times
DECEMBER 6, 2016

The nation’s health insurers, resigned to the idea that Republicans will repeal the Affordable Care Act, on Tuesday publicly outlined for the first time what the industry wants to stay in the state marketplaces, which have provided millions of Americans with insurance under the law...

The demands are a sort of warning shot to Republicans. While the party is eager to repeal the law as quickly as possible, and many have promised a replacement, its members are sharply divided over what shape any new plan should take. If they do not come up with an alternative, more than 22 million people would be left uninsured, including the more than 10 million who have bought individual plans on state marketplaces...

While insurers say they do not plan to fight the Republicans’ efforts to repeal the law, they are in no hurry to see it unwound. And Ms. Tavenner said the industry would support a delay so it could prepare for the changes...

Ms. Tavenner said the industry wanted to know more about what the Republicans were planning, including information on the fate of the Medicaid expansion under the law. “We still have more questions than answers,” she said. “We don’t want to disrupt individuals who are relying on our coverage,” she said.

Full Story

WPRI: HealthSource RI refused to sell 2 low-cost insurance plans

By Ted Nesi and Susan Campbell
Published: October 26, 2016, 4:53 pm  Updated: October 26, 2016, 6:10 pm

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) – Health insurance premiums on Rhode Island’s Obamacare marketplace will dip slightly next year, but they’d be going down even more if state regulators hadn’t rejected two low-cost options Neighborhood Health Plan wanted to offer...

But HealthSource officials said their decision was driven by the federal formula for premium subsidies, which are provided to about 90% of the Rhode Islanders who buy insurance through the marketplace.

The amount of those premium subsidies – which are technically tax credits – is tied to average costs across all plans in a state’s marketplace. Adding the two low-cost Neighborhood plans “would have the effect of making all of the plans that we offer less affordable,” Sherman said, because it would have pulled down the amount of tax credits provided by the federal government to subsidize every plan.

Full Story

As hospitals struggle financially, are we treating symptoms but not the disease?

By Richard Asinof
ConvergenceRI
Posted 4/4/16

Lack of a coordinated statewide health care plan in Rhode Island has resulted in triage for how decisions get made about the future needs of health care delivery...

The bottom line, however, is that you also need a large-enough patient base to make the numbers work in an accountable care framework, which is why there has been a new wave of consolidation of hospitals, not just in Rhode Island but throughout New England and the nation.

Full Story

The Truven Report on Rhode Island Behavioral Health Project: Supply Report

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Motivation. Rhode Island’s vision is to ensure that all of its residents have the opportunity to achieve the best possible mental health and well-being within healthy local communities that promote empowerment, inclusion, and shared responsibility. To meet this vision, Rhode Island must have a complete view of its behavioral health system. This must include information on Rhode Islanders’ service needs, how services are financed, where services are used, the quantity and costs of services, and the societal cost of untreated or undertreated behavioral illness. This report describes the supply of behavioral health providers and behavioral health service capacity. It is one of four main reports of the Behavioral Health Project: (1) Demand Report, (2) Cost Report, (3) Supply Report, and (4) Summary Report.

Full Report

Providence Journal: David Spencer and Ruth Feder: R.I. mental health system in shambles

Posted Mar. 3, 2016 at 2:01 AM

The system for delivering behavioral health services in Rhode Island is seriously ill. Actually, one could describe it as being on life support. If it is to survive, intensive care is required.

Last year, the Raimondo administration initiated an ambitious cost-saving project, entitled "Reinventing Medicaid." Advocates and consumers in the world of behavioral health care often refer to this plan as "Decimating Medicaid."

The new Reinventing Medicaid effort has been officially described as setting out to curb costs while improving the quality of health care for the state’s neediest. It is time to stop describing these cuts as improving care. It’s just not the case.

The Truven Report, a study commissioned by the state, found that from 2007 to 2014, state funding for behavioral health care was cut by $30 million.

Mental Health America recently ranked all the states in quality of and access to services. In the overall ranking, Rhode Island ranked number 48 out of all the states, nearly the worst. A low overall ranking such as Rhode Island’s indicates “higher prevalence of mental illness and lower rates on access to care.”

Full Story

Healthcare/Housing

Overcoming the chronic disease of hardening of the categories
By Peter Simon
Posted 1/4/16

PROVIDENCE – One bad joke amongst epidemiologists working in public agencies in the U.S. is that what kills most bureaucrats is a disease called “hardening of the categories.”

Congress loves categorical funding. There are literally more categorical programs authorized and funded by Congress than there are districts and representatives. This challenges those of us who work at the state and local level to create ways to at least coordinate our programs so that investments leverage other programs and funding.

Full Story @CONVERGENCERI.COM

The RI Communities With the Highest Post-Employment Benefit Liabilities

Friday, April 10, 2015
Russell J. Moore, GoLocalProv Contributor
http://www.golocalprov.com/news/the-ri-communities-with-the-highest-post-employment-benefit-liabilities

There has been plenty of attention and scrutiny involving the pension crisis and settlement over the past several years, but there's another liability that’s facing local governments around the country and in Rhode Island.

In addition to pensions, local governments have promised workers pension benefits, known as OPEB, to cover their bills in their retirement years.

What's OPEB?
Municipal governments have promised workers OPEB benefits, which stands for "other post-employment benefits", the vast majority of which are health care benefits in the form of providing health insurance

Single Payer

RIFuture.org
Raimondo cherry picks data, overstates issues in Reinventing Medicaid
By Steve Ahlquist on March 31, 2015

Two single-payer advocacy groups, Rhode Island Chapters of Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP) and HealthCare-Now, have prepared a report that is highly critical of Governor Gina Raimondo’s Reinventing Medicaid initiative.

The PNHP/HCN-RI report identifies five areas of concern and concludes that “Governor Raimondo has made it impossible” to achieve the goal of developing “a plan to improve the quality of care Rhode Islanders receive and reduce the costs for Rhode Island taxpayers.”

H5387, a single-payer health care bill introduced by Representative Aaron Regunberg.

3 important RI health care stories you might have missed

January 15th, 2015 at 11:24 am by Ted Nesi under Nesi's Notes, On the Main Site

The end of the year is often a time when news stories that might otherwise receive a lot of attention get overlooked while people are busy with the holidays. That’s even more true in a year like 2014, when Rhode Islanders were recovering from a huge election season and preparing for new leadership.

One example of this phenomenon was health care. While the future of HealthSource RI continues to get a lot of attention, three other things that happened in December deserved a closer look than they got. Together, they give some sense of what public and private leaders in the local health sector are expecting to focus on in 2015.
Full Story

League Positions

Impact on Issues is an indispensable resource for League leaders. A clear understanding of LWVUS positions, how they interrelate and how they can complement and reinforce state, local and Inter-League Organization (ILO) positions, will strengthen the League’s “Impact on Issues” at all levels of government.
http://lwv.org/content/impact-issues-online-edition

See League positions on:

Representative Government (includes: Voting Rights, Elections, etc.)

International Relations (includes: Arms Control, Military Spending, etc.)

Natural Resources (includes: Agriculture, Environmental Protection, etc.)

Social Policy (includes: Health Care, Immigration, Gun Control, etc.)

 

HealthSourceRI — A Year Later

by Mike Ryan
http://motifri.com/healthsourceri-a-year-later/

A year ago, we wrote about the massive changes happening in health care – Obamacare on the national level, HealthSourceRI and changes at Blue Cross Blue Shield and other RI institutions, as well as how those things were expected to change the lives of local residents, especially artists, musicians and others in professions that historically often slipped through the cracks in the healthcare systems...

So, where have we come from there? Healthcare will never be an easy thing to fix, and insurance will always be complicated, but we checked in with sources at HealthSourceRI, BlueCross/BlueShield, our new governor’s office, and the Tune In & Tune Up program at the RI Music Hall of Fame to find out what’s changed since last year, and what they think lies ahead.

NPR: Parsing HealthSource RI Enrollment Data

By Kristin Gourlay

HealthSource RI is out with its most recent enrollment data.
It looks like the state's online health insurance marketplace kept two-thirds (71%) of enrollees from last year and gained a quarter more (about 5,000 new enrollees). So with total enrollments for 2015 at 22,910, HealthSource RI didn't lose a bunch of customers but didn't gain a whole lot either.

More

12 things to know about Medicaid in Rhode Island

By Ted Nesi, WPRI

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) – When Gov.-elect Gina Raimondo tapped Lt. Gov. Elizabeth Roberts as her secretary of health and human services on Sunday, the state’s incoming leader gave Roberts a clear mission.

“We have to commit ourselves to being the national leader in controlling Medicaid costs,” Raimondo declared, emphasizing that she wanted to “do it in a way that’s creative and innovative, so we don’t hurt people in the process.”...

Why is Medicaid such a big deal, and why is Raimondo focusing on it? Here are 12 facts to help you understand the program, its costs and its importance.

http://wpri.com/2014/12/08/12-things-to-know-about-medicaid-in-rhode-island/

HealthSource Rhode Island: Status Updates and Upcoming Policy Decisions

PROVIDENCE – On Monday, October 20, the Rhode Island Public Expenditure Council (RIPEC) released “HealthSource RI: Status Updates and Upcoming Policy Choices.” The report is intended to provide stakeholders with background information on Rhode Island’s health insurance exchange, HealthSource Rhode Island (HSRI), and outline forthcoming policy decisions. The press release is available here and the full report is available here.

State Health Care Innovation Plan

Healthy Rhode Island is a project of the Office of Lt. Governor, in conjunction with Governor Chafee’s Office, the Executive Office of Health and Human Services, the Office of Health Insurance Commissioner, the Department of Health, and the Health Benefits Exchange, focused on the future of the health care system in Rhode Island.

State Health Care Innovation Plan

HealthSource RI Events

Making the healthcare connection.

As part of the Affordable Care Act, HealthSource RI will improve the health of all Rhode Islanders by connecting you to quality, affordable healthcare.
Through a set of easy-to-use, powerful tools, we’ll transform healthcare in the Ocean State. As the plans we offer compete for your business, we’ll be able to drive the cost of care down. And by negotiating for the options that best suit your needs, we’ll ensure you get the benefits and support you deserve so we can all live the healthiest lives we possibly can.

http://www.healthsourceri.com/blog-2/event-listings/

RI Lt. Gov. Elizabeth Roberts, Rhode Island's Health Care Exchange

http://vimeo.com/78090011
           

About this video
"On March 27, 2013, Rhode Island Lieutenant Governor, Elizabeth Roberts, spoke at League Day at the State House about the Rhode Island Health Care Exchange."

Affordable Care Act Seminar

Join us (Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island) for this presentation and discussion on the impact of  the Affordable Care Act (ACA)

Wednesday, October 30 | 7:00pm

Free and open to the community

Lt. Governor Elizabeth Roberts will provide insight into the Affordable Care Act and HealthSource RI. She’ll show how individuals, families, and small employers can easily enroll in a health care plan that will meet their needs.

HealthSource RI, also known as Obamacare, launched their open enrollment period which runs from October 1, through December 15. Coverage begins January 1, 2014.

For more details, contact Marty Cooper at 401.421.4111.ext. 171 or mcooper@jewishallianceri.org.

Sponsored By:

Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island