- California Healthline Original Stories 3
- LA County Health Chief Wants To 'Catch' People Dropped From Coverage
- Hospitals, Both Rural And Urban, Dread Losing Ground With Health Law Repeal
- Advocates Of Flat-Fee Primary Care See Opening In GOP’s Market-Driven Approach
Latest From California Healthline:
California Healthline Original Stories
LA County Health Chief Wants To 'Catch' People Dropped From Coverage
Mitch Katz, director of the L.A. County Health Agency, says California must find ways to cover state residents who might lose their health coverage if Obamacare is repealed. (Emily Bazar, )
Hospitals, Both Rural And Urban, Dread Losing Ground With Health Law Repeal
Under the Affordable Care Act, hospitals made a high-stakes trade of massive cuts in federal aid in exchange for millions of newly insured customers. Now that deal is in jeopardy. (Sarah Varney, )
Advocates Of Flat-Fee Primary Care See Opening In GOP’s Market-Driven Approach
In direct primary care, a monthly fee covers routine care, limiting insurers' role. But does it really provide better value? (Michelle Andrews, )
More News From Across The State
Covered California & The Health Law
Getting Patients To Have Skin In The Game Is An Economist's Dream, But It's Also A Political Risk
Although experts believe high costs are being driven by the high prices of medical services in the country, Republicans are instead focusing on getting Americans to pay more for their own coverage. It's a political risk that could backfire on them.
Los Angeles Times:
The Political Time Bomb At The Heart Of Republican Obamacare Alternatives: Higher Costs For More Americans
Republicans came into office this year promising to rescue Americans from rising healthcare bills by repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act. But the party’s emerging healthcare proposals would shift even more costs to patients, feeding the very problem GOP politicians complained about under Obamacare. And their solutions could hit not only Americans who have Obamacare health plans, but also tens of millions more who rely on employer coverage or on government health plans such as Medicaid and Medicare. (Levey, 2/28)
In other health law news —
inewsource:
Doctor Who Helped Shape Obamacare Warns Of Drop In Quality Of Care If Law Is Scrapped
Lost on the American public, and even many physicians and lawmakers, is the fact that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is about much more than helping people get medical insurance. That’s only part of the law. More than half its 900 pages created more than 100 regulations designed to improve outcomes, so patients get the right care, get it more efficiently and are less likely to be infected or otherwise hurt in the process. (Clark, 2/28)
Bill Would Require State AG To Evaluate Impact Of Hospital Closure
Recent and proposed hospital closures have brought attention to the issue. “Closing hospitals and emergency rooms worsen health outcomes and increase deaths,” says the legislation's author state Sen. Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley).
East Bay Times:
East Bay Legislators Fight Back Against Hospital Closures
Bay Area politicians unveiled a new plan aimed at stopping a wave of hospital closures in California, including Berkeley’s Alta Bates Hospital, slated for closure as early as 2020, by giving the state Attorney General the authority to review the impact of the decision before allowing it to move forward. The legislation, authored by state Sen. Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley), focuses on not-for-profit hospitals, such as Kaiser, Alta Bates and Summit. Under current law, California hospitals are only required to give a 90-day notice to the Department of Public Health prior to shutting down operations. If passed, the hospital would also be required to hold at least one public hearing. (Ioffee, 2/27)
Company Taps Into Public's Angst To Push Questionable Genetic Testing
A Stat investigation looks at a California company that claims it can offer a DNA test to determine how a patient would react to pain medication.
Stat:
Genetic Lab Pays Doctors To Push Dubious Tests, Employees Say
A STAT investigation found that Proove employees stationed in physicians’ offices pushed unnecessary tests on patients — a practice called “coercion” by one former manager — and they sometimes completed research evaluation forms on behalf of doctors, rating the tests as highly effective when they weren’t. In fact, Proove tests of DNA captured by swabbing inside a patient’s cheek were so unreliable that many physicians disregarded the results. There was scant evidence, said the company’s former chief scientist, that the tests improved patient outcomes. (Piller, 2/28)
Physician’s Assistant Facing Drug Charges After Undercover DEA Operation
The officials first suspected Mark Allen Flores after they were tipped off by employees at a pharmacy, who said multiple men in their 20s were coming in with prescriptions — filled out by Flores — for high-dosage painkiller pills.
East Bay Times:
San Ramon: DEA Busts Physician’s Assistant In Prescription Drug Case
A physician’s assistant reportedly operated a business here that advertised itself as providing at-home health and wellness care, but federal investigators say the owner was illegally prescribing painkillers, such as Vicodin, and taking payments under the table. Mark Allen Flores, who ran Concierge Physician Assistants of California, was arrested and charged last week after undercover Drug Enforcement Administration agents bought prescription pills from him, according to court documents. A DEA agent’s statement of probable cause details how Flores became a suspect, and how he allegedly conducted multiple prescription drug transactions with a female undercover agent. (Gartrell, 2/27)
Common Tax Write-Offs Mostly Off-Limits For Marijuana Shops
Because of a law passed during the height of the war on drugs, shops can't take deductions available to other small businesses.
San Francisco Chronicle:
Up In Smoke: Federal Taxes A Big Burden For Pot Shops
Tax season is rarely cause for celebration for U.S. business owners, but for medical marijuana dispensary operators like Rechif, who runs Bloom Room Cannabis Collective in San Francisco, it tends to be an especially painful period. Thanks to an arcane federal law written and passed in the fever pitch of the war on drugs, marijuana dispensaries are unable to take advantage of the vast array of deductions that other businesses rely on to lower their tax bills each year. (Fracassa, 2/27)
In other news from across the state —
KPCC:
Rift Divides Top Air Quality Regulators
A rift has developed between two of the Los Angeles region's most important overseers of air pollution laws, one that might take an act of the state legislature to resolve. In a recent meeting, the head of the board that oversees air quality in the LA basin has accused the majority of an independent hearing board -- one that decides how to enforce local smog and emissions rules -- of being too cozy with the industries it regulates. (McNary, 2/27)
San Diego Union-Times:
Dave Roberts Wants Workers' Comp For Stress, Hand Injury
Former San Diego County Supervisor Dave Roberts has filed workers’ compensation claims for psychological stress from a threatening incident, and for an overuse-injury to his right hand, wrist and arm and other body parts.In the first claim, the one-term board member said he suffers from psychological health issues from a run-in with a mentally-ill man who aggressively approached brandishing silverware. “A man in a white shirt came at me with a fork,” Roberts said in a statement to police after the Oct. 26, 2013, incident. Records and past interviews with Roberts give no indication that the supervisor was touched by the man. (Stewart, 2/27)
'Nobody Knew That Health Care Could Be So Complicated,' Trump Tells Governors
The president said the intricacies of replacing the health law could slow progress on other priorities, such as the tax overhaul and infrastructure.
The New York Times:
Trump Concedes Health Law Overhaul Is ‘Unbelievably Complex’
President Trump, meeting with the nation’s governors, conceded Monday that he had not been aware of the complexities of health care policy-making: “I have to tell you, it’s an unbelievably complex subject. Nobody knew that health care could be so complicated.” The president also suggested that the struggle to replace the Affordable Care Act was creating a legislative logjam that could delay other parts of his political agenda. (Pear and Kelly, 2/27)
In other national health care news —
The Associated Press:
Plan To Repeal Obama Health Law Shows GOP Governors Are Torn
The nation’s governors don’t want people in their states to lose health coverage under a repeal of the Obama-era health care law, but even after a weekend of bipartisan meetings, they still don’t agree on the best approach to replace it. Governors attending the winter meeting of the National Governors’ Association met Monday morning with President Donald Trump at the White House, where the president marveled about the intricacies of health policy. (Nuckols, 2/27)
Reuters:
Trump Seeks Help Of Insurers To Smooth Obamacare Transition
President Donald Trump sought on Monday to bring the nation's largest insurance companies on board with his plans to overhaul Obamacare, saying their help was needed to deliver a smooth transition to the Republicans' new plan. "We must work together to save Americans from Obamacare – you people know that and everyone knows that - to create more competition and to bring down prices substantially," Trump told insurers at a meeting at the White House. (Humer and Abutaleb, 2/27)
The Associated Press:
Divided Republicans Await Guidance From Trump
Congressional Republicans are hoping for clarity from President Donald Trump on key issues like health care when he delivers his first speech to a joint meeting of Congress. It comes as Republicans are discovering, a month into Trump's administration, how difficult it will be to make good on their many promises now that they control Washington in full. (2/28)
Politico:
Trump's Speech Can't Mend GOP Schisms On Obamacare
President Donald Trump may rally Republicans on a strategy to repeal and replace Obamacare in his speech to Congress Tuesday night. But the reality is his administration still has to contend with huge divisions within the GOP that have turned its top policy goal into a long and uncertain slog. Republicans lack consensus on such basic questions as how much to spend to reshape the health system, how much financial help to give Americans to buy insurance and how to come up with the money to pay for it all. (Haberkorn, 2/28)
The Wall Street Journal:
House Republicans Expect Trump Will Get On Board With Medicare, Social Security Cuts
House Republicans, confronted with President Donald Trump’s opposition to curbing spending on Medicare and Social Security, said Monday they were optimistic Mr. Trump would change his mind once he looks more closely at the longer-term numbers. White House officials said Monday that Mr. Trump will seek to increase military spending by 10% above budget caps set into law for next year, offset by cuts to nondefense spending, in his first budget proposal next month. (Peterson, 2/27)
The Associated Press:
VA Pledges More Inspections, Drug Tests To Stem Opioid Theft
The Department of Veterans Affairs said Monday it would boost employee drug testing and inspections amid rising cases of opioid theft and missing prescriptions, acknowledging gaps that had allowed thousands of doctors, nurses and other staff to go unchecked for signs of illicit drug use. (2/27)
The New York Times:
Deadly, Drug-Resistant ‘Superbugs’ Pose Huge Threat, W.H.O. Says
The World Health Organization warned on Monday that a dozen antibiotic-resistant “superbugs” pose an enormous threat to human health, and urged hospital infection-control experts and pharmaceutical researchers to focus on fighting the most dangerous pathogens first. The rate at which new strains of drug-resistant bacteria have emerged in recent years, prompted by overuse of antibiotics in humans and livestock, terrifies public health experts. Many consider the new strains just as dangerous as emerging viruses like Zika or Ebola. (McNeil, 2/27)