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{ Health Care Briefs } Connecticut — a title she will keep. But her new role will include oversight of Women's Health's business in other states, including New York, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Arizona and California. Rate of CT workplace injuries, illnesses exceeds nation's More than 36,000 nonfatal workplace injuries and illnesses were reported among Connecticut's private industry employers in 2015, resulting in an incidence rate of 3.2 cases per 100 equivalent full-time workers and higher than the national rate of 3.0, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Connecticut was among 21 states that had an incidence rate of total recordable cases (TRC) significantly higher than the national rate, Regional Commissioner Deborah A. Brown said. Fewer employers offer health insurance, fewer employees sign up e percentage of employers offering health insurance fell to 45.7 percent in 2015, the latest data available, driven largely by more small employers not offering health benefits, according to new data from the University of Minnesota. In Connecticut, 48.6 percent of all employers offered employer- sponsored health insurance, down from 52.3 percent in 2014. Larger employers increased their offers of insurance, but those gains were more than offset by small employers dropping insurance benefits, according to researchers at the State Health Access Data Assistance Center (SHADAC), a program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and a part of the Health Policy and Management Division of the School of Public Health at the University of Minnesota. 2018 exchange plans could cover fewer hospitals, doctors, drugs Insurance companies that sell coverage through the state's health insurance exchange next year will be allowed to cover fewer hospitals, doctors and prescription drugs under changes the exchange's board recently approved. Officials hope those changes could help offset rate increases that would otherwise be required because of the increased price and use of medical care and prescription drugs. "All the carriers have been saying that these changes will help them offer more competitive plans, so we want to see them do that," Access Health CT CEO Jim Wadleigh said. Separately, the board approved changes to plan designs for 2018 that would, in many cases, leave customers with higher out-of-pocket costs. e most popular mid-level silver plan, for example, would see a deductible increase from $4,000 to $5,000 for individual coverage. – Arielle Levin \\ CT Mirror Trinity Health inks Uber pact St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center said it has signed an agreement with ride-hailing mobile app service Uber to make it easier to catch a ride to and from St. Francis and Trinity Health New England's other Connecticut and Massachusetts locations. Under the agreement, Uber will include specific pickup and drop- off locations for six Trinity facilities in its app, making it easier for drivers to locate fares on the large properties. Trinity staff will also be able to use an online dashboard to schedule multiple Uber rides in advance. Uber signed a similar pact last year with Hackensack University Health Network, a three-hospital health system in New Jersey. St. Francis said its agreement with Uber is a first in Connecticut and Massachusetts. CT hospital group: Health systems worth $26.2B to economy Connecticut hospitals contributed $26.2 billion to the state and local economies in 2015, according to a report released by the Connecticut Hospital Association (CHA). e 2017 Economic Impact Report was released amid hospitals' fight against Gov. Dannel Malloy's proposal for a local-option property tax on hospitals and certain related properties, which are currently tax exempt. CHA has been airing TV commercials opposing the tax. Hartford's three acute-care hospitals would pay about $56 million a year to the city under the proposal. e opposition comes despite a pledge from Malloy to reimburse hospitals with supplemental Medicaid funds to fully offset the local taxes. CHA's report said Connecticut hospitals employ 100,000 people and nearly every job produces another outside the hospital, for 199,000 total jobs. Hospitals generated $14.7 billion in annual local payroll, $9.9 billion in spending on goods and services, and $1.6 billion in capital spending, in 2015, the report said. Holistic health center opens in Farmington Healing practitioners are creating a holistic health center in Farmington with specialists that include naturopaths, energy healers, acupuncturists, yoga instructors, massage therapists, nutritionists and others under one roof. e new Bridge Healing Arts Center (BHAC), at 304 Main St., is in a complex situated on a 7-acre campus and is the former home of the Keiler & Co. advertising agency that closed in 2015. Practitioners can lease office suites at the site. Five of 62 are leased so far. "Practitioners of the healing arts understand that a person is made up of interdependent parts that all need to work in harmony," said Yisroel Rabinowitz, owner of Universal Enterprise LLC and founder of BHAC. Rabinowitz bought the property last year for $1.425 million. e philosophy of holistic health care is an integrated approach that treats the whole person, not simply symptoms and disease, with practitioners striving to balance mind, body and spirit. ey look at all aspects of a person's lifestyle and health issues. Continued from previous page CT collects 17 tons of unused prescription meds in 2016 e state of Connecticut collected 33,803 pounds of unused prescription medications at collection boxes last year, a sharp rise over 2015, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy announced. at amount, almost 17 tons, was 43 percent higher than what residents dropped off in 2015. e rising collections show people are taking the epidemic of prescription drug abuse seriously by disposing drugs and keeping them out of unintended hands, Malloy said. e state's prescription drug drop box program is administered by the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection (DCP) in cooperation with state and local police departments. It provides a location for residents to discard unused medications to decrease the possibility of prescription drug misuse while also preventing the substances from contaminating water supplies. P H O T O \ \ C N N 6 GREATER HARTFORD HEALTH • Spring 2017