KATY GOLVALA // CTmirror.org

There are 95,000 housekeepers working in hospitals across the country, which is greater than the number of doctors working in hospitals. Housekeepers are among the health care workers who spend the most time with patients and their families, often talking to and forming relationships with people as they clean. But critics say financial awards fall far below what is deserved.

Hartford HealthCare’s recent appeal of the state’s denial of its application to close the labor and delivery unit at Windham Hospital is the latest step in a two-year saga that has pitted community organizers in Windham against one of the state’s largest health systems. The filing also initiates the final stage of the process before the state issues a final decision on the proposed closure.

As the health care industry becomes more and more concentrated, some small private practices find it difficult to compete with big health care systems. So, instead, they’re joining them. As of January, hospitals owned 26% of physician practices nationwide, up from 14% a decade ago. An additional 27% of practices were owned by a corporation, such as a health insurer or a private equity firm, leaving fewer than half of physician practices under independent ownership. But, to the patient, does it really matter whether practices are owned independently or by a health system?

Even as COVID-19 case rates balloon in Connecticut and elsewhere, restrictions designed to curb the spread of the virus are more relaxed than ever.

HUSKY C, the state’s Medicaid program for people with disabilities, has very different income and asset limits for people who are working than for those who are not working. Many people with disabilities who retire or lose their jobs suddenly find themselves with too much money to continue qualifying for their Medicaid coverage, even though their income has decreased dramatically.

Advocates who had hoped to see another expansion of Medicaid coverage this year for children regardless of their immigration status are now calling for the proposal to be included in the state budget implementer, following a surprising defeat of the bill in committee.

Health care workers are contracting covid at higher rates than ever before. Yale New Haven Health CEO calls the trends in worker infections more frightening than hospital admissions.

Connecticut's major hospital systems report much more manageable conditions than in previous surges.