David Krechevsky

CVS Health, the parent of Aetna Inc., informed the state and city of Hartford on Monday that it will lay off 42 more employees who work for the Hartford-based health insurer. In a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) filed with the state Department of Labor, CVS states that it plans to eliminate 40 positions from Aetna’s facility at 151 Farmington Ave., during a 14-day period between Jan. 25 and Feb. 7, 2025. Of the 40 employees affected, just 12 actually work on-site; the rest work remotely. 

Hartford HealthCare has teamed with the American School for the Deaf (ASD) in West Hartford to provide in-person American Sign Language (ASL) and other translation services for deaf and hard-of-hearing patients and their companions, the organizations announced Thursday. Under terms of the partnership agreement, Hartford HealthCare will add a full-time ASL/English medical interpreter to its staff and deepen its commitment to the deaf and hard-of-hearing community, officials said. 

SwiftConnect, a Stamford-based property technology startup that provides digital access to buildings, said Thursday it has closed a $37 million Series B financing round. The company last raised $10 million in an oversubscribed Series A funding round that closed in October 2023. To date, SwiftConnect has raised a total of $74 million.

Hartford residents or non-resident property owners who have been affected by flooding must apply for financial assistance from a state program by Dec. 2, the state Office of the Comptroller announced Tuesday. Comptroller Sean Scanlon said the deadline to apply for the Hartford Flood Relief and Compensation Program (HFCP) is being imposed due to the volume of applications already received and because the program is funded through federal American Rescue Plan dollars that must be allocated by the end of the year.

This number is hard to ignore: 99% of women who receive an early breast cancer diagnosis survive the disease. That’s what makes a new federal rule — set by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) — that took effect on Sept. 10 so noteworthy. It requires healthcare providers to tell patients during mammography screenings how dense their breasts are, because women with dense tissue may need additional screenings to detect cancer. While that’s a key step in the fight against the disease, the cost of those additional screenings can be prohibitive.

Rallybio, a New Haven-based biotechnology firm, released its third-quarter earnings report Thursday, posting a smaller net loss while producing revenue for the first time, in part due to significant job cuts. The company, based at 234 Church St,, Suite 1020, in New Haven, reported a third quarter net loss of $11.5 million, or 26 cents per share, down from a net loss of $18.4 million, or 45 cents per share, for the same quarter last year.

Community Mental Health Affiliates (CMHA), a New Britain-based private nonprofit treatment provider, announced that Raymond J. Gorman, its president & CEO for nearly two decades, plans to step down next June. The organization said its board of directors has already begun a “comprehensive process” to select his successor. Gorman, a Waterbury native who lives in Newington, has had a long career in health care, including leadership roles in both public and private organizations.

CVS Health on Tuesday named a former CEO of UnitedHealthcare as president of its subsidiary, Aetna Inc. Steve Nelson most recently served as CEO of ChenMed, a value-based primary care company headquartered in Miami. He had served as CEO of UnitedHealth Group’s UnitedHealthcare from 2017 until he retired in 2019. His appointment as Aetna president is effective immediately.

A new report from state health regulators finds that more than half of the healthcare organizations in Connecticut have adopted alternative payment models (APMs) that focus on the quality of care rather than on the quantity of services provided.

EvolveImmune Therapeutics Inc., a Branford-based bioscience company developing therapeutics to overcome cancer cell resistance to current immunotherapies, has signed a collaboration and option-to-license agreement with Illinois-based Abbvie, the companies announced recently. Under terms of the agreement, EvolveImmune will receive $65 million in aggregate upfront fees and equity investment from AbbVie and is eligible for up to $1.4 billion in aggregate option fees and milestones, as well as tiered royalty payments on net sales.