Connecticut’s Insurance Department has called on one health insurer to raise its premiums more than the company requested for next year, saying it had underestimated medical inflation and overestimated cost savings.
The department approved a 7.2 percent rate hike for HealthyCT, up from the 3.43 percent requested. But overall, the department has cut the rate hike requests of most health insurers for plans that begin in 2016. Only two rate cases were allowed without change, and Connecticare was actually ordered to cut its rates for one particular plan by 1.3 percent from what it’s currently charging.
New York Most Expensive Headquarters State
General Electric got a little more data this morning to feed into its potential relocation decision. Accounting firm KPMG and the Tax Foundation released their listing of comparative corporate tax rates in the 50 states. And it’s not good news for one of the suitors. New York is listed as having the highest effective tax rate on corporate headquarters - more than 28 percent for newly arrived companies. But Connecticut doesn’t exactly have much to boast about. It’s seventh highest on the list.
St. Francis Merger Still Alive
St. Francis Hospital in Hartford is still on track to merge with a Michigan-based hospital group. Connecticut’s Office of Healthcare Access has formally accepted the application for the sale of the parent organization, St. Francis Care, to Trinity Health. The proposal now enters a review period, and may get a public hearing. The Office of Healthcare Access courted controversy last year when it imposed stringent conditions on proposed takeover of Connecticut hospitals by Tenet Healthcare; the conditions were cited by Tenet when it withdrew its application.
