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Grassroots Groups Polish Drug Companies’ Image

by Sharon Bass | Sep 29, 2005 12:09 pm | Comments (0)

Groups dedicated to helping the poor and disenfranchised have found themselves—sometimes to their spokesmen’s surprise—participating in a front group for drug companies dedicated to blocking cheaper prescriptions.

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We Won’t Say—& We Won’t Say Why

by Paul Bass | Sep 27, 2005 5:28 pm | Comments (0)

They said they won’t tell us how they’re spending $625 million of our tax dollars on health care for the poor. That was bad enough. (“The Right to ‘No.’”) They called that information a “trade secret.” Now a bunch of HMOs and their enablers in the Rell administration refuse to tell us why they consider it a trade secret. So on Tuesday legal aid lawyers announced in New Haven that they’ve filed yet another Freedom of Information complaint over the Medicaid/HUSKY program. They want the state at least to describe why it considers this crucial public information too much of a “trade secret” to reveal to the public. Below are the press release and the complaint they filed.

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“If You Have Lung Cancer, You’re Out of Luck”

by Sharon Bass | Sep 21, 2005 10:01 am | Comments (0)

Few people fight as hard for Connecticut’s 407,000 uninsured as Ellen Andrews, executive director of the Connecticut Health Policy Project. She works—most often alone—in a bare-bones office in the back of the Red Cross building on New Haven’s Whitney Avenue. But as tucked away as she is, she has not been ignored. Andrews will be one of three winners to receive the annual the Morris Wessel Prize for “Unsung Heroes” at a 3 p.m. ceremony this Saturday

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The Right to “No”

by Paul Bass | Sep 20, 2005 3:48 pm | Comments (0)

New Haven legal aid's Sheldon Toubman is ready to rumble with a battery of HMO lawyers Wednesday over whether to keep the public's business secret. Can HMOs take hundreds of millions of our tax dollars—and not even tell us what they’re doing with the money? Freedom of Information hearings starting Wednesday take up that question; the governor’s waffling. The public’s right to know hangs in the balance. So does the health care of hundreds of thousands of families.

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No Cheap Seats

by Dan Levine | Sep 15, 2005 2:02 pm | Comments (0)

One of Connecticut’s leading nursing home chains owes a furniture supplier over $180,000, according to a new lawsuit. No big deal?

Haven Healthcare, owner of 17 nursing home facilities in Connecticut- including locations in West Hartford and New Haven- owes Massachusetts-based supplier Adden Furniture $183,000 and change, according to a lawsuit filed in Hartford Superior Court last week.

The nursing home chain acknowledges over $95,000 of the debt, according to a letter from Haven’s Senior Vice President Anthony Scierka to Adden. However, the company disputes the rest of the amount, saying it never ordered the furniture Adden claims it did.

Many Connecticut nursing homes- especially those with more Medicaid patients- are in a precarious financial situation, due to the state’s underfunding of Medicaid reimbursements to those facilities.

Click here to read more more on the web site ctnewsjunkie.com.

HUSKY Switcheroo

by Sharon Bass | Sep 14, 2005 7:40 pm | Comments (0)

Toni Harp wonders whether working families can afford the upcoming HUSKY premium hike. New rules go into place in two weeks for the state health-insurance program for working-poor families. Will more kids get health care? Or will more struggling families have to drop out?