Government disarray undermines nonprofits’ recovery hopes

Brad Kane, Hartford Business Journal | November 11, 2013

With increased volatility in government support and fundraising becoming more difficult, nonprofit organizations are less optimistic about their future, according to a United Way survey of the region.

In the survey, 67.1 percent of respondents said they were optimistic about their ability to operate in the Greater Hartford region. That percentage is down from the 71.4 percent who were optimistic in 2012, according to the United Way of Central and Northeastern Connecticut. Full story…

The Quest for Cost-Efficient Local Government in New England

Yolanda Kodrzycki, New England Public Policy Center | February, 2013

The Quest for Cost-Efficient Local Government in New England: What Role for Regional Consolidation?

Click on this link to view research report: http://www.bostonfed.org/economic/neppc/researchreports/2013/neppcrr1301.pdf

Car Tax Is Wrong Battle For Regional Reformers

MORE Commission: Legislators should focus on streamlining government

Editorial, The Hartford Courant | Sept 13, 2013

Grand plans sometimes stumble on secondary issues. We hope this doesn’t happen to the MORE Commission.

The MORE Commission (for Municipal Opportunities & Regional Entities) is attempting to make the state and its towns run more efficiently and less expensively though regional cooperation and other measures. It’s off to a good start.

The commission was created as a Democratic legislative effort three years ago under the chairmanship of then-House Majority Leader Brendan Sharkey. It produced a number of useful measures, including a popular shared services grant program. Mr. Sharkey, now House speaker, brought back the commission this year as a bipartisan, bicameral effort. Full story…

‘Medical home’ program now reaches a third of Medicaid patients

By Arielle Levin Becker, The CT Mirror | Sept 11, 2013

A state program that pays health care providers to take a more active role in patient care now reaches close to a third of Connecticut’s Medicaid clients.

Now in its second year, the “person-centered medical home” program allows primary care providers to earn additional money for meeting standards intended to improve outcomes and access to care for Medicaid patients.

As of Sept. 5, 982 health care providers were participating in the program, either as fully qualified members or as part of a “glide path” for those still working to meet all the standards. Altogether, they see 218,511 Medicaid patients, about a third of the approximately 640,000 Connecticut residents covered by Medicaid.

Full story…

Thousands of nursing home beds empty as state rebalances care

By Lisa Chedekel, The CT Mirror | Aug 11, 2013

At the Governor’s House Rehabilitation & Nursing Center in Simsbury, 17 of the nursing home’s 73 beds sat empty this spring – a 23-percent vacancy rate that would have been unlikely five years ago.

The home’s occupancy has fallen despite its above-average health care quality scores in the federal government’s rating system. Full story…

OP-ED | The Economics of People, Part II

By Brian O’Shaughnessy, CT News Junkie | July 31, 2013

Government Needs the Private Sector

Government does several things very well. One of those things is excluding the private sector. A goal with perhaps virtuous origins, this policy now breeds silly results.

History is replete with norms indefensible in retrospect. At what point do they transform from accepted to anachronism? When do we say, “That makes no sense?” There are examples that span all facets of life: civil rights (slavery, woman’s suffrage), economics (unregulated security markets), or even fashion (leisure suits). Personally, I would add to this list the cultural aversion of government to the private sector. Full story…

State launches website to promote long-term care options, jobs

By Arielle Levin Becker, The CT Mirror | June 27, 2013 

The state has launched a website and media campaign to increase awareness about the choices Connecticut residents have for receiving long-term care and the career options for caregivers.

The campaign, called My Place CT, is part of an effort to expand the ability of seniors and people with disabilities to live in communities, rather than institutional settings like nursing homes. The move to reshape the state’s long-term care system also includes trying to help the nursing home industry broaden its business model to serve the needs of people living outside their facilities. Full story…

OP-ED | The Land of Steady Habits

By Brian O’Shaughnessy, CT News Junkie | June 18, 2013

For the past two years, colleagues and I have been working within Connecticut to promote the concept of social innovation investments. The high profile tools are social impact bonds and pay-for-success contracting structures, but there are others.

These non-partisan approaches promote measurement of social service investments and reallocation of limited public resources towards primarily preventive services. The idea is to maximize the economic benefit of social services by reducing the underlying conditions that cost taxpayers money. Address root causes and deliver strong, proven services early, to avoid trouble later. A fiscal approach regarding the delivery of preventive social services can create tremendous economic value. Permitting social service needs to fester promotes reactive government and bloat. Full story…

Hamden, North Haven eye joint police dispatch centers

By Michael Bellmore, The New Haven Register | June 3, 2013

HAMDEN — North Haven and Hamden’s dispatch centers might one day be consolidated under one roof.

Officials from Hamden and North Haven’s police departments pitched the regionalization of their dispatch centers during an informational introduction of the project at Monday’s Legislative Council meeting. Full story…

OP-ED | Fixing Connecticut’s Splintered Health and Human Services

By James P. Torgerson | Featured on CT News Junkie, May 13th, 2013

Connecticut’s system of providing more than $12 billion in health and human services is confusing, splintered and inefficient. With a realignment and reorganization of the services now provided by seven separate and distinct state agencies, the state could more effectively utilize limited tax dollars, while providing better services with better outcomes. Full story…