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California Healthline Original Stories
New Covered California Sign-Ups Plummet
Even though the number of people renewing their Covered California health plans increased this year, new enrollment plunged by nearly a quarter compared with last year, posting a bigger drop than the federal health insurance exchange, healthcare.gov, which saw a 16 percent decrease. Officials largely blame the elimination of the federal tax penalty for people without insurance. (Ana B. Ibarra, )
Good morning! We have lots of California health news for you today, ranging from Covered California enrollment numbers to lawmakers grilling utility regulators on wildfire prevention. Meanwhile, “Medicare for All” has been thrust into the national spotlight as 2020 contenders launch their campaigns, but not every Democrat is on board. All that and more below.
Covered California Enrollment Holds Steady Overall As New Sign-Ups Plunge
California spent millions on advertising to get the word out about open enrollment, and yet the 23.7 percent drop-off in new sign-ups was much steeper than expected even for those who were braced for a decrease. Covered California officials pointed to federal level actions—such as the elimination of the individual mandate—to explain steepest year-over-year decline in new enrollees in the exchange’s six-year history. The numbers weren’t all bad news for officials, though: A strong increase in renewals helped bolster the overall enrollment totals. Read more in Sacramento Bee’s coverage.
Attorney General Announces $935,000 Settlement With Aetna In Privacy Lawsuit
The settlement stems from an issue over patient confidentiality that arose when a vendor for Aetna mailed thousands of letters with clear windows that revealed the adressees’ HIV-related medication. Along with having to pay the Attorney General’s Office $935,000, Aetna has agreed to implement new training and strategy to prevent any similar incidents in the future. “Aetna violated the public’s trust,” Attorney General Xavier Becerra said. “We will continue to hold these companies accountable.” Check out the full story in the Sacramento Bee.
‘I Don’t Think We’re Prepared For The Enormity We’re Seeing’
The president of the California Public Utilities Commission painted a grim picture of the state’s current ability to deal with increasingly deadly and destructive wildfires. Michael Picker made the case in front of lawmakers that just adding staffing won’t solve the problem. The state needs to invest in better technology, he said. Picker’s commission is under intense scrutiny following the Camp Fire deaths. Read more from the Los Angeles Times.
'Medicare For All' Was Once A Fringe Policy Proposal, Now It's A Litmus Test For 2020 Dems
California Sen. Kamala Harris and other Democrats have seized on "Medicare For All" as a winning health strategy as they kick off their campaigns for 2020. But what does that mean in a party where leadership is advocating for incremental fixes to the health law instead of sweeping policy changes geared toward universal coverage? Read more here.
Below, check out the full round-up of California Healthline original stories, state coverage and the best of the rest of the national news for the day. Media outlets report on news about hospital patient dumping, the homeless crisis, false prescriptions, the Choice Program for veterans, the opioid crisis in courts, and more.
More News From Across The State
Sacramento Bee:
Covered California Enrollment Holds Steady For 2019
Despite the elimination of a tax penalty for those who forgo health insurance, enrollment in Covered California’s health plans remained at almost the same level as last year, with more than 1.5 million people signing up. That may sound like good news, but Covered California executive director Peter V. Lee is concerned that his agency saw a 23.7 percent drop in the number of new consumers seeking coverage. (Anderson, 1/30)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Covered California Sees Largest Decline Of New Signups In Six-Year History
But there was a significant drop-off in one key group that the health law has long aimed to get insured.
That group — people who are signing up for insurance for the first time — fell nearly 24 percent during the most recent open enrollment period that ended Jan. 15, compared with the same period last year, according to figures released Wednesday by Covered California. The most recent open-enrollment period was the first since the Affordable Care Act went into effect in 2014 that the tax penalty for not buying insurance was no longer in place because Congress repealed the requirement in late 2017. (Ho, 1/30)
California Healthline:
New Covered California Sign-Ups Plummet
Overall, about 1.5 million Californians selected a health plan for 2019 coverage, a figure similar to last year’s, the agency said. But new enrollment fell by 23.7 percent, with 295,980 sign-ups, compared with 388,344 last year. Meanwhile, plan renewals remained strong, posting a 7.5 percent increase. (Ibarra, 1/30)
Orange County Register:
Long Beach Hospital Defends Discharge Of 84-Year-Old Woman Dumped At Locked Alzheimer’s Facility
College Medical Center employees followed proper procedures last month when they discharged an 84-year-old woman with dementia, and then placed her in a cab that dropped her off at a locked Alzheimer’s treatment center in the middle of the night, hospital officials said Wednesday. “College Medical Center is committed to providing its patients with superior service and quality of care,” the Long Beach hospital said in a statement. “College Medical Center fully complies with all regulations concerning patient discharge planning and transportation.” ...College Medical Center said patients have a right to choose their method of transportation upon discharge from the hospital. (Schwebke, 1/30)
Sacramento Bee:
Becerra Settles Aetna Lawsuit Over HIV Status Exposure
Attorney General Xavier Becerra has settled a lawsuit against healthcare provider Aetna, which was in hot water after sending out letters to almost 2,000 Californians that revealed their HIV status through a window on the envelope, according to Becerra’s office. The $935,000 settlement was announced Wednesday, and court documents detail the 2017 breach of patient confidentiality that led to the lawsuit and a multimillion-dollar class action settlement. (Darden, 1/30)
Los Angeles Times:
California Lawmakers Grill Top Utilities Regulator Over Wildfire Prevention
Under intense questioning from state lawmakers, California’s top utilities regulator said the state is ill-equipped to deal with a new reality of destructive and deadly wildfires brought on by climate change. “I don’t think we are prepared for, in any way here in the state of California, for the enormity that we’re seeing,” said Michael Picker, president of the California Public Utilities Commission. “We need more. We need more thinking. We need more ideas.” Picker made the comments in testimony Wednesday during the agency’s annual oversight hearing in the state Assembly. (Luna, 1/30)
San Jose Mercury News:
Fake Walgreens Pharmacist Handled Over 700,000 Prescriptions, State Says
For more than a decade, Walgreens stores in Fremont, Milpitas and San Jose allowed Kim Thien Le to perform pharmacist duties — including reviewing patient drug use — for 745,355 prescriptions dispensed from a total of 395 Walgreens pharmacies, according to a California State Board of Pharmacy investigation. If the allegations prove true, each store faces a range of penalties from receiving a formal reprimand to having its pharmacy license revoked, said Bob Dávila, a spokesman with the pharmacy board. (Geha, 1/30)
San Jose Mercury News:
Bay Area Homeless Count: Volunteers Take Stock Of Crisis
The signs were everywhere: a pile of clothing next to a brimming shopping cart, a cluster of tents tucked beneath an overpass, a parked car with fabric covering every window like curtains. In the pre-dawn darkness Wednesday, hundreds of volunteers deployed throughout the Bay Area, hunting for those clues, and hoping to shed light on what each one represents: a person who spent the night outside. (Kendall, Sciacca and Vo, 1/30)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Counting Homeless People In Oakland: ‘A Reminder Of How Horrible It Is To Be Living Outside’
A person, curled in a blanket, slept on top of a discarded mattress and box spring on the corner of an East Oakland street. That person counts.At dawn Wednesday morning, I was riding around East Oakland with volunteers for Alameda County’s “Point in Time” biennial homeless count. (Taylor, 1/30)
Sacramento Bee:
CA Housing Crisis Bill Aims To Help Homeless College Students
California’s housing crisis has left hundreds of thousands of community college students either homeless or facing the threat of being homeless. A new California State Assembly bill offers a potential remedy — letting students sleep in their vehicles in campus parking lots and structures. (Sheeler, 1/31)
Ventura County Star:
Casa Pacifica Reworking Foster Care Programs After State Overhaul
The Casa Pacifica residential center for troubled children is facing some of the stiffest financial and operating challenges in its 25-year history, buffeted by changes in foster care, mental health funding and the increasingly intense needs of youths admitted to the facility. ...The unlocked center near Camarillo was established in the mid-1990s to provide state-of-the-art care, assessment and treatment for abused and neglected children from Ventura County. An estimated 6,000 children were admitted over two decades. (Wilson, 1/30)
Los Angeles Times:
Water Warning At Huntington Dog Beach
Residents and four-legged beach-goers alike are warned to avoid the water at Huntington Dog Beach, the Orange County Health Care Agency said Wednesday. An ocean water warning was issued for the beach after bacteria levels exceeded state health standards, according to a water quality report issued at 10 a.m. Wednesday. (Sclafani, 1/30)
Capital Public Radio:
Sacramento Neighborhood Leaders Celebrate Progress Following Drop In Black Child Death Rates, Ask For More Support
Seven art pieces featuring the faces of young homicide victims lined the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors chambers’ back wall on Tuesday. They were carried in by leaders from the seven neighborhoods where African-American children die in the largest numbers — but those trends are changing. (Caiola, 1/30)
Politico:
Harris Dives Into 'Medicare For All' Minefield
Medicare for All has become a litmus test for 2020 Democrats, but the party is struggling to balance the grassroots enthusiasm for the cause with the political challenges of making it a reality. Kamala Harris was the latest candidate to come under fire from the left, right and center. In a widely watched CNN town hall, the California senator quickly embraced “Medicare for All” and said she was ready to see the private health insurance industry killed off. But quickly, she and her staff offered a more nuanced story: Harris also backs many incremental, go-slow plans that aren’t as radical, and add up to something more like “Medicare for More” or a strengthened version of Obamacare. (Ollstein, 1/31)
NPR:
'Medicare-For-All' Endorsed By Some Democrats Considering A Run For President
"Medicare-for-all," once widely considered a fringe proposal for providing health care in the U.S., is getting more popular. Several Democratic presidential hopefuls are getting behind the idea. Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., endorsed the approach Monday in a CNN town hall-style event, saying her aim would be to eliminate all private insurance. "Who of us has not had that situation, where you've got to wait for approval and the doctor says, well, 'I don't know if your insurance company is going to cover this,' " Harris said. "Let's eliminate all of that. Let's move on." (Kodjak, 1/30)
The Hill:
‘Medicare For All’ Opens Up Dem Divide
The embrace of “Medicare for all” legislation by top 2020 Democratic presidential candidates has opened up a rift in the party. Democrats highlighted health care in the 2018 midterm elections and reclaimed the House majority by picking up 40 seats. But their message was focused on protecting ObamaCare, not implementing a single-payer system — which is favored by progressives. Some on the left maintain that backing Medicare for all legislation is a must for anyone who wants to secure the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020. (Weixel and Hellmann, 1/30)
The New York Times:
Veterans Will Have More Access To Private Health Care Under New V.A. Rules
Veterans who live as little as a 30-minute drive from a Veterans Affairs health care facility will instead be able to choose private care, the most significant change in rules released Wednesday as part of the Trump administration’s effort to fix years-old problems with the health system. Veterans who can prove they must drive for at least 30 minutes to a Department of Veterans Affairs facility will be allowed to seek primary care and mental health services outside the department’s system. Current law lets veterans use a private health care provider if they must travel 40 miles or more to a V.A. clinic. (Steinhauer, 1/30)
The Wall Street Journal:
New Details On Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, JPMorgan Health Venture Emerge In Court Battle
Health giant UnitedHealth Group Inc. went to court Wednesday to try to stop a former executive from working for a company it sees as a competitor, the health-care venture launched last year by Amazon.com Inc., Berkshire Hathaway Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. The scope of the still-unnamed venture remains hazy beyond stated goals to improve health care and rein in costs for employees. But filings related to the case and court testimony offer some fresh clues about the closely watched effort, including that it may build its own solutions if what it needs isn’t available elsewhere. (Kamp and Wilde Mathews, 1/30)
The New York Times:
Hopeful Would-Be Parents Shop Jobs For I.V.F. Coverage
A little over a year ago, Haley Burns, 29, was trying to get pregnant and was also becoming restless in her job. An information technology specialist for Sharp HealthCare in San Diego, she began searching for another position (while trying to get pregnant), and checking out the benefits of Sharp’s competitors (while also trying to get pregnant). The last time she had been on the job market, Ms. Burns said, “I wanted the ability to work remotely, and of course I wanted the biggest paycheck I could get.” Now she had a different priority: fertility coverage. (Grigoriadis, 1/30)
The Wall Street Journal:
Despite Raising Prices, Big Pharma Is Selling Drugs For Less
Drug companies may be raising list prices in the U.S., but discounts mean the actual price of many drugs is falling. Novartis AG on Wednesday said net prices—the sum it gets after discounts to the list price—slipped last year and would continue to fall in 2019. Although drug companies are still raising list prices, they are under growing political pressure to limit those increases. At the same time, companies are offering bigger discounts to the middlemen who manage prescriptions for health plans, as the drug companies try to win favorable treatment of their products, such as lower patient co-payments. The upshot: drug prices after the discounts, know as rebates, are going down. (Roland, 1/30)
The Associated Press:
E-Cigs Outperform Patches And Gums In Quit-Smoking Study
A major new study provides the strongest evidence yet that vaping can help smokers quit cigarettes, with e-cigarettes proving nearly twice as effective as nicotine gums and patches. The British research, published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine, could influence what doctors tell their patients and shape the debate in the U.S., where the Food and Drug Administration has come under pressure to more tightly regulate the burgeoning industry amid a surge in teenage vaping. (1/30)
The New York Times:
Opioid Lawsuits Are Headed To Trial. Here's Why The Stakes Are Getting Uglier.
Just over a year ago, opioid lawsuits against makers and distributors of the painkillers were proliferating so rapidly that a judicial panel bundled all the federal cases under the stewardship of a single judge. On a January morning, Judge Dan Aaron Polster of the Northern District of Ohio made his opening remarks to lawyers for nearly 200 municipal governments gathered in his Cleveland courtroom. He wanted the national opioid crisis resolved with a meaningful settlement within a year, proclaiming, “We don’t need briefs and we don’t need trials.” That year is up. (Hoffman, 1/30)
The Wall Street Journal:
Family Behind OxyContin Maker Made Billions, Say Court Papers - WSJ
The controlling family behind the maker of opioid painkiller OxyContin took home billions of dollars over the past decade, even as sales of the drug waned, newly revealed parts of court documents show. More than $4 billion was paid out between 2008 and 2016 to members of the Sackler family, owners of drugmaker Purdue Pharma LP, according to redacted portions of a civil complaint brought by Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey against Purdue for allegedly contributing to the state’s opioid crisis. (Hopkins and Randazzo, 1/30)
The New York Times:
120,000 Pounds, Recalled: What’s Happening To America’s Chicken Nuggets?
Tyson Foods, one of the United States’ largest meat producers, recalled more than 36,000 pounds of chicken nuggets on Tuesday after pieces of rubber were found in the food. A day earlier, another large meat supplier, Perdue, recalled more than 16,000 pounds of chicken nuggets because of misbranding and undeclared allergens. The nuggets contain milk — a common allergen — but it was not clearly specified on the packaging, according to the United States Department of Agriculture. (Garcia, 1/30)
The New York Times:
Was C.T.E. Stealing His Mind? A Gunshot Provided The Answer
The blast from upstairs shattered the quiet of a small-town weeknight. It was all so sudden. Or had it been coming for years? Jason Hairston had just been downstairs with his young son and daughter, who could not understand why their father was acting so strange. His wife, on the phone from across the country, was desperately trying to get her husband to say something, anything. (Branch, 1/31)