Eight hospitals in Connecticut have turned to Community Care Teams as they deal with "free-riders," people who use the system as a place to stay or get treatment without having a need or in many cases, a way of paying for it.
Terri DiPietro helped craft the Community Care Team at Middlesex Hospital, the first of its kind in Connecticut.
“We look for the reason why people aren’t getting connected to services outside of the hospital and then we make sure they do get connected to those services by working in collaboration with our community partners" Dipietro said.
Included in Gov. Dannel Malloy's rescissions announced last month were $65 million in cuts to hospitals. $1.5 million in particular was cut to Community Care Teams. The newest team was set to be assembled in Danbury with the Western Connecticut Health Network.
Dr. Charles Herrick, the Chief of Psychiatry said he was depending on the team coming to help ease the strain on emergency departments. He says he expects the network will still find a way to adequately fund the Community Care Team.
He said, "It’s unfortunate that they’re not investing in these community care teams because they have proven to be so incredibly successful to the state.”
DiPietro says many patients end up in emergency rooms for reasons they don't have much control over.
She said "Housing is a main reason why people keep coming to the emergency room over, over, and over again. We also direct them to primary care. Remember, this is the part of the population that dies 25 years before their cohorts.”
Many people suffer with substance abuse issues and the team works as a bridge to get the person to a community partner that helps people deal with their addiction.
According to recent estimates from the Connecticut Hospital Association, the Community Care
Teams save more than $25 million in Medicaid spending, and free up more than 8,000 emergency department beds for people that actual need them in cases of critical care and trauma.
Gov. Malloy defended the cut to hospitals Wednesday. He says he can't guarantee that the $65 million in cuts wouldn't have been used to support high CEO paychecks at some systems.
“Can you expect that a portion of that money is going to go to pay higher salaries for the top executives, just doesn’t make a whole lot of sense" he said.
The governor did provide more than $14 million in payments to smaller hospitals last week, easing the burden of some of the recently announced cuts.
