Rell signs bill to expand health care registry, helping patients learn about providers

In the Stamford News: Governor M. Jodi Rell signed a Public Act 08-109 law. This act extends the state physician profile to other Health Care Providers.

30 acute- and long-term-care hospitals in the state of Connecticut have agreed to share data to help control and prevent infections caused by multiple drug-resistant organisms.

According to the Connecticut Hospital Association, the hospitals will use a Web site, listserv and conference calls to collect data and implement patient safety improvements.

Healthcare Finance Review reports WellPoint will be using a healthcare product created Zagat to allow consumers to rate their overall experience with their doctors, but will not be tied to reimbursement levels. WellPoint plans to launch the rating system among its some 35,000 members using Blue Cross and/or Blue Shield subsidiaries in metropolitan Los Angeles, Connecticut and greater Cincinnati and Dayton, Ohio markets.

AHA News reports that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will solicit home health agencies in seven states to participate in a two-year pay-for-performance demonstration to begin in January. The states are Alabama, California, Connecticut, Georgia, Illinois, Massachusetts and Tennessee.

The following is a summary of legislation by state regarding the disclosure by hospitals of their hospital infection rates.

Arkansas

Connecticut's campaign to get the state's Medicaid HMOs to disclose more information about their rates and services has suffered a setback, but state lawmakers are continuing the fight. Connecticut legislators are currently debating a measure whereby the state's Medicaid HMOs would have to share more information on rates and services. Language in the original bill that defined the HMOs' contracts with the state - including its operational standards and rates paid physicians - as public records subject to freedom of information laws was removed in the revised bill.

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