Good news for those who think that health care costs are a problem: Connecticut Medicaid has solved the problem of the high cost of treating chronic disease and major health events. Data provided in their August 2007 disease management RFP shows the following:

A good question is, why didn’t anyone in the state notice that their costs are understated by a factor of 10? A better question is, why didn’t anyone in the state notice that their costs are understated by a factor of 10 after this was pointed out to them? They didn’t take any steps to fix it. Why? We are reminded of the famous story told by Utah Jazz president Frank Layden from his days as a coach. He admonished one of his underperforming players who had developed an attitude problem: “Son, I don’t know what’s wrong with you. Is it ignorance or apathy?”

The player thought for a minute and responded, “Coach, I don’t know and I don’t care.”

The implications of this? (Note for the grammatical purists: by “this” we are referring to Connecticut) In addition to pretty much putting the state’s taxpayers on notice that they don’t understand chronic disease economics, they are also sending a signal to the vendor community that they aren’t going to be able to challenge invalid methodologies.

For vendors, it’s basically Open Season on Connecticut Medicaid.

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