Hartford Business Journal

12 Hartford Business Journal • October 30, 2017 • www.HartfordBusiness.com Reporter's Notebook Matt Pilon | mpilon@HartfordBusiness.com Health Care/Bioscience, Startups & Entrepreneurs, Government/Law and Energy HEALTH CARE Access Health navigates 2018 challenges W ith President Donald Trump's and Congressional Republicans' near-constant attacks on Obamacare swirl- ing, and the shortest-ever open enrollment period set to begin Nov. 1, Access Health CT Marketing Director Andrea Ravitz has been plenty busy communicating facts to potential customers. People are perhaps as confused as ever about the status of the state's insurance exchange, which hosts two insurers — ConnectiCare and Anthem — that sell health coverage to individuals and small businesses. "There's a lot of noise," Ravitz said. "Do I still need to do this? Are you still around? Did you close your doors?" The answer: "Yes, the Affordable Care Act is still the law, there is still a penalty for not having healthcare coverage, and Access Health CT is still the only place people can get financial help," Ravitz said. The open enrollment period to buy insurance through Access Health will run for eight weeks through Dec. 22. That's four weeks shorter than what's been al- lotted in previous years. Coverage starts Jan. 1. Access Health officials weren't sure which coverage options would be sold on the exchange until mid-September. That's when Anthem and ConnectiCare confirmed they would continue offering exchange plans, despite uncertainty about the Affordable Care Act's future. That short time frame made it more dif- ficult for Ravitz to plan Access Health's ad campaign, which costs north of $4 million. "I was planning three campaigns two months ago," she said. "Are we going to have two carriers, one carrier, zero carri- ers? And what do we do if that happens?" Television, radio, print and other mar- keting launched in early September. The campaign focuses on the steep costs of health care without insurance. There is a $695 penalty for not having coverage, but that doesn't account for any major costs someone would incur if they suffered a medical emergency. "The messaging we have right now is your past self talking to your future self about the decision they made when they signed up," she said. For example, one ad shows the $30,000 cost of a three-day hospital stay and the $800 cost of a year's worth of cholesterol medication. Another hurdle to navigate this year has been Trump's threats — which he followed through on in September — to eliminate approximately $10 billion in federal payments to Obamacare insurers, which have helped keep premiums down. The move spurred the Connecticut In- surance Department (CID) to ask Anthem and ConnectiCare to refile their 2018 health plan rates. Without the so-called "cost sharing reduction" (CSR) payments, premiums shot up. For 2018 plans, premi- ums on average will be 28 to 32 percent higher for individuals and 25.4 percent higher for small business exchange customers, according to CID. (There is a bipartisan plan being considered by Congress that would restore the CSR pay- ments, but its fate is uncertain.) While 2018 premiums will be steeper in Connecticut and other states, Ravitz said that federal subsidies for many customers will also be higher, helping to offset at least some of the impact. The majority of Access Health's nearly 100,000 customers on commercial health plans receive some level of federal subsidy, she said. Trump ending CSR payments is a direct example of federal action impacting a state-run exchange. But not everything that's happened at the federal level will impact Connecticut, Ravitz said. For example, marketing budgets have been gutted for the federally facilitated exchange, which is used by 27 states, but not Connecticut. STARTUPS AND ENTREPRENEURS Clinical trial for Alzheimer's treatment with CT roots readies A group of investors and scientists recently sat around a conference table in downtown Hartford's Stilts Building to discuss a Florida-based clinical trial for a helmet-like medical device that aims to reverse the effects of Alzheimer's disease. What were they doing in Hartford? Simple enough, explained Gary Arendash, a longtime Alzheimer's researcher and CEO of Phoenix-based NeuroEM Therapeutics, which is leading the clinical trial. "We have a number of investors … here in Connecticut and I thought it would be great to meet them in person," said Arendash, who hadn't previously visited the state. "I think 10 out of the 11 noteholders are here in Connecticut." NeuroEM Therapeutics has raised up- wards of $1 million for the phase one clinical trial. One investor is Eric Knight, a longtime Connecticut inventor and mentor in the state's CTNext entrepreneurial program. Knight designed a helmet-like device that delivers electromagnetic waves to the brain, of the same sort that a cell phone might. He patented his design and licensed it to NeuroEm a few years ago, where Arendash had been working on similar technology. Today, the helmet technology looks more polished and has an attached control box that a patient wears. Patients in the clinical trial will use the device for two months, wear- ing the helmet for two hours per day in two separate sessions. The treatment can be done at home, which has reduced the poten- tial costs of the trial, Knight said. The hope is that electromagnetic waves could shake loose tangled strands of proteins inside brain cells that are associated with Alzheimer's disease. After licensing his device, Knight encour- aged the Connecticut Angel Investor Forum, of which he is a member, to consider taking a stake in NeuroEM. Ed Goodwin, a biologist who leads the angel forum, said he was skeptical of the technol- ogy at first, but then read published animal research by Arendash and others — which found using electromagnetic waves on mice with Alzheimer's provided some cognitive benefits — and started to think otherwise. "It's a simple idea," Goodwin said. "It's complex figuring out how to adjust it and do it just quite properly and all. But this was based on a good deal of research in multiple labs that showed consistent results." The forum ended up investing about $150,000. "For them to put their money in is about the biggest stamp of approval you can pos- sibly have," Knight said. Now, after some delay, NeuroEm and its partners are looking ahead to testing the device, called the NeuroEM 1000, on a dozen patients in Florida. The trial had been set to begin late last year at a facility in Arizona, and NeuroEM hoped to publish its findings by now. But Ar- endash said he ran into problems there and patients were not being put into the trial. His team spent the past eight months finding a new host, which ended up being the University of South Florida's Byrd Al- zheimer's Institute, where Arendash previ- ously worked for 30 years. Arendash said he tried to find a clinical trial partner in Connecticut, but the timing didn't work out. He expects to have his 12 patients enrolled at USF by year's end and to publish results in 2018. The phase one trial is aimed at ensuring the device is safe, but NeuroEM will also be looking for signs that patients are seeing some improvement in their condition. If things look promising, the team will need more money for a phase two trial. Ed Goodwin, president of the Connecticut Angel Investor Forum, tries on the NeuroEm 1000. HBJ PHOTO | MATT PILON HBJ PHOTO | MATT PILON Access Health's Andrea Ravitz is promoting open enrollment this fall amid much uncertainty. GOVERNMENT & POLITICS Cites struggle with high percentage of tax-exempt properties Hartford and other major cities in the state have a high percentage of tax-exempt properties owned by non- profit, government, education or other institutions, which erodes property tax revenues. Here's a breakdown: Taxable Tax-exempt Municipality property property Hartford $4.1B $4.1B New Haven $6.1B $5.7B Bridgeport $7.1B $3.1B Waterbury $4B $1.6B Taxable Tax-exempt Municipality property property New Britain $2.4B $1B West Hartford $5.9B $800M Manchester $3.9B $500M Glastonbury $3.8B $200M Source: Moody's

• Cover