Latest California Healthline Stories
Sacramento City Unified School District Restores Health Net Coverage to Teachers, Early Retirees
On Tuesday, the Sacramento City Teachers Association announced that the Sacramento City Unified School District has agreed to immediately restore Health Net coverage for teachers and early retirees after the district eliminated the health plan in a controversial move last fall. The teachers union in October 2014 filed a claim alleging the school district’s unilateral switch in health insurers for 2015 violated state employment law, violated its contract and could have disrupted health care for employees and retirees. Sacramento Bee.
Many Co-Ops Created Under ACA Struggling Financially, Reports Find
A Standard & Poor’s report finds that the 23 consumer operated and oriented plans established under the Affordable Care Act’s Co-Op Program suffered net losses during the first three quarters of 2014 ranging from $2.9 million to $39.8 million. Meanwhile, a separate report finds the 23 co-ops tended to have high claim costs. Modern Healthcare.
GAO: Medicaid Overpaying for Beneficiaries With Private Coverage
A new Government Accountability Office report finds that Medicaid has been overpaying for beneficiaries who also have private coverage. The report states that insufficient data and issues with coordination have contributed to the problem. The Hill, GAO report.
California Pediatricians Increasingly Turn Away Unvaccinated Patients
Amid an outbreak of measles, a growing number of pediatricians in California and other states are refusing to accept patients whose parents object to vaccinations. Meanwhile, state health officials are advising parents not to intentionally expose their children to the disease in an attempt to gain immunity. Los Angeles Times, Time.
Covered Calif. on Track To Meet Enrollment Goals, Officials Say
Covered California officials expect a last-minute surge in sign-ups to help the exchange reach its goal of enrolling about 500,000 new consumers during the second open enrollment period, which ends on Feb. 15. As of Feb. 2, about 288,558 new enrollees had signed up for a plan through the exchange. KPBS, U-T San Diego.
CSU Study Finds Insurance Is Cheaper Than ACA’s Individual Mandate Penalties for Half of Students
About 50% of students at California State University would pay less by purchasing health coverage than paying fines under the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate for remaining uninsured, according to a study by the CSU Health Insurance Education Project. CSU officials say they hope the findings will encourage students to enroll in coverage before the second open enrollment period ends on Feb. 15. Los Angeles Times.
L.A. County Cuts $4M From HIV/AIDS Safety-Net Spending
On Tuesday, Los Angeles County officials cut $4 million in federal funding from contracts to provide medical care to patient with HIV and AIDS, citing an increase in insured county residents under the Affordable Care Act. AIDS Healthcare Foundation Board Chair Cynthia Davis argued against the decreased funding, noting that maintaining current spending levels would “ensure that these hard-to-reach and medically underserved clients” are properly identified and treated. Los Angeles Times.
Calif. Home Care Workers Renew Push for Overtime Pay
Home care workers and community groups are holding rallies in California to urge Gov. Brown to reinstate a plan to provide overtime, travel and wait time pay to in-home aides. Brown’s administration put such plans on hold after a federal judge overturned the pay extension. Sacramento Bee‘s “Capitol Alert.”
Calif. Prison Health Care Provider Agrees To Reforms in Settlement
Yesterday, Corizon Health agreed to reform its operations at California prisons as part of a settlement in a wrongful death lawsuit. Corizon agreed to provide training to its correctional officers every two years and to stop using licensed vocational nurses in place of registered nurses. Reuters, Contra Costa Times.
Google To Highlight Vetted Medical Data in Health-Related Search Results
On Tuesday, Google announced that is working with the Mayo Clinic to display accurate results for health-related queries in a new way. According to Google, about one in 20 Google searches is for a health-related term. The search engine will leverage its Knowledge Graph — a Google function that creates a “smarter” search by combining the companies search algorithm with internal and publicly available datasets — to display relevant health information in a box at the top of a user’s search results page. The information will be pulled from trusted medical websites and has been vetted by a team of doctors at Google and another team at the Mayo Clinic. MedCity News, MobiHealthNews.