Latest California Healthline Stories
Retired Stockton Workers Try To Block Health Benefits Cuts
This week, a group of retired Stockton city employees filed a lawsuit seeking an injunction against a city bankruptcy protection plan that would cut their health benefits. As part of the plan, the city informed retirees that they must pay their premiums by July 30, or their medical benefits would be cut retroactive to July 1. Los Angeles Times.
Low Reimbursement Rates Could Hinder Medi-Cal Expansion
There might not be enough physicians to handle the influx of patients when the state expands Medi-Cal under the federal health reform law. Many doctors have stopped accepting new Medi-Cal beneficiaries because of low reimbursement rates. San Jose Mercury News.
GOP Governors Question Whether Health Reform Will Deliver on Promises
In a letter to President Obama, Republican governors questioned whether his administration will be able to deliver on its promise to extend coverage to most of the country’s uninsured residents by 2014. The letter includes 25 questions about the reform law. AP/Washington Post et al.
White House Aims To Work With States on Medicaid Expansion
HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius says that the Obama administration will work with governors on the health reform law’s Medicaid expansion. The Supreme Court recently ruled that state participation in the expansion is optional. The Hill‘s “Healthwatch,” Washington Post.
Palo Alto Researcher Testing Key Health Care Questions
Dominick Frosch of the Palo Alto Medical Foundation is using a two-year, $674,264 grant from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute to test whether empowering patients to asking three key questions will result in them being better informed about available health care options and potential outcomes. The pilot project is one of 50 funded by the research institute, which allocated $30 million for the initiatives in April. Santa Cruz Sentinel.
Obesity Program Costs Could Fall on Insurers, Employers
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force’s recent recommendation that clinicians screen patients for obesity and refer them to intensive weight-loss programs could require insurers and employers to cover the full cost of such programs. The federal health reform law requires that new health plans and employers whose benefits change enough to lose their grandfathered status provide members and workers with services recommended by USPSTF at no additional charge. Kaiser Health News/Washington Post.
Poll: U.S. Voters Split on Supreme Court Ruling, Support for Reform Law
A Washington Post-ABC News poll finds that 45% of U.S. voters agree with the Supreme Court’s ruling on the health reform law, while 44% disagree with the decision. Voters were evenly split on whether they support or oppose the reform law. Washington Post et al.
Calif. Appeals Court To Examine Legislature’s Reordering of Ballot
In response to a lawsuit by the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, an appeals court is examining whether Democrats violated state law by using a budget bill to move Gov. Brown’s compromise tax hike initiative to the top of the November ballot. Sacramento Bee.
Brown Backs Away From Putting Pension Reform Plan on November Ballot
A spokesperson for Gov. Brown says he no longer plans to pursue putting a pension reform measure on the November ballot. Meanwhile, a new Field Poll finds that likely voters in California have mixed views on pension benefits. Sacramento Bee‘s “The State Worker” et al.
Health Insurers Unable To Contain Costs, Columnist Says
Los Angeles Times columnist Michael Hiltzik writes that lawsuits filed earlier this year by insurers Aetna and United Healthcare alleging fraudulent overcharges by a Northern California chain of small surgical clinics are an “admission” of the insurers’ “utter incompetence in handling their most important role under” the health reform law, “which is keeping a lid on health care costs.” He concludes, “If the insurers continue to perform this badly, who will pay the price? As taxpayers and policyholders, you will.” Los Angeles Times.