Thumbs up, thumbs down

Thumbs up to University of Connecticut declaring its intention to cover tuition costs for instate students with family incomes below the $50,000 line. Incoming fulltime students need to apply by Feb. 15. Though students in that bracket are already eligible for financial aid that would close most of the gap, the new program will hopefully lure more prospects who otherwise may not apply due to sticker shock at seeing the $13,798 price tag for instate students. The program does not cover $3,428 in fees and the $13,258 for in campus housing and meal plan costs.

Thumbs down to high rates of readmitted patients resulting in a loss of Medicare reimbursement payments at 26 of 29 Connecticut hospitals that were evaluated. The worst offenders cited were Bridgeport Hospital, Waterbury Hospital, Manchester Memorial Hospital and Bristol Hospital. A thumbs up to Stamford Hospital, which had no penalties for the second consecutive year. For the last six years, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has penalized hospitals with high rates of readmitting patients within one month of being discharged.

Thumbs up to a push by Sen. Richard Blumenthal for an inquiry into the crash at Bradley International Airport that killed seven people last week. Blumenthal said Monday he is seeking information from the Federal Aviation Administration on the foundation that flies vintage aircraft like the B17 Flying Fortress, which crashed into a building a Bradley last week. An exemption to certain FAA regulations apparently allows the Massachusettsbased company to use 10 vintage planes for passenger trips for a fee. There may have been nothing that could have stopped the tragedy at Bradley, but all necessary steps must be taken to see that it doesn’t happen again.

Thumbs down to efforts by the Sackler family to shield itself from lawsuits against its company, Stamfordbased Purdue Pharma, over the role it has played in the nation’s opioid crisis. Connecticut and dozens of other states have fought those efforts and rejected a settlement offer from the company. According to court records, the Sacklers made $12 billion to $13 billion from Purdue, even as family members running the company have been accused of misleading doctors and the public about the addictive qualities of OxyContin, the company’s top moneymaker.

Thumbs up to work getting underway by a committee that will implement the state’s new law on paid family medical leave. After being signed into law by Gov. Ned. Lamont, the FMLA program is planned to begin in three years and provide workers in Connecticut with benefits that will allow them to take time off work to care for a newborn child, a sick family member or themselves. The authority will set the level of employee premium contributions, capped at 0.5 percent of a worker’s earnings.

Thumbs up to a clarification about an encounter with a bear in Southbury last week. “This was not an attack, but an incidental and isolated interaction,” the unidentified hiker said on Monday in reference to an incident near Lake Zoar in September. A Newtown resident, the hiker said he does not believe local bears are an “immediate or hazardous threat to the townsfolk,” and said people should not have a “kneejerk reaction” to bears’ presence. He added that he was opposed to “any narrative that promotes increased engagement or violence towards the animals living among our trails and preserves.”