- KFF Health News Original Stories 5
- California’s New Single-Payer Proposal Embraces Some Costly Old Ways
- GOP Health Bill Pleases Most Republicans, But Not Many Other Americans
- Two Medicare Advantage Insurers Settle Whistleblower Lawsuit For $32 Million
- Handshake-Free Zone: Keep Those Hands — And Germs — To Yourself In The Hospital
- Drug Rebates Reward Industry Players — And Often Hurt Patients
- Covered California & The Health Law 1
- A Tale As Old As Time: Trying To Fix California's Health Care System
Latest From California Healthline:
KFF Health News Original Stories
California’s New Single-Payer Proposal Embraces Some Costly Old Ways
The legislation would revive the age-old practice of paying providers for every service they perform — a recipe for a busted budget, some experts say. Backers say the bill is a work in progress. (Chad Terhune, 5/31)
GOP Health Bill Pleases Most Republicans, But Not Many Other Americans
While nearly half of Americans support Obamacare, fewer than a third are in favor of the Republican replacement legislation. (Julie Rovner, 5/31)
Two Medicare Advantage Insurers Settle Whistleblower Lawsuit For $32 Million
Freedom Health and Optimum HealthCare agreed to settle a lawsuit alleging they overbilled Medicare. (Fred Schulte, 5/30)
Handshake-Free Zone: Keep Those Hands — And Germs — To Yourself In The Hospital
Health care workers and families are trying new ways of greeting people in two neonatal intensive care units at UCLA, hoping to reduce infections and protect fragile babies. (Anna Gorman, 5/30)
Drug Rebates Reward Industry Players — And Often Hurt Patients
A new JAMA study examines how drug rebates can direct money to middlemen and force Medicare patients to cough up more money. (Sarah Jane Tribble, 5/30)
More News From Across The State
Bill To Increase Transparency In Drug Prices Passes California Senate
“We’re not saying that they can’t raise the price. We’re just saying notify us,” said Sen. Ed Hernandez (D-Azusa). "And if [the price] goes up a significant amount, we should be able to question why.”
Los Angeles Times:
More Transparency Proposed For Prescription Drug Price Increases Under Bill Passed By California Senate
Alarmed by skyrocketing prices for some prescription drugs, the California Senate on Tuesday approved a measure aimed at increasing pressure to hold down costs to consumers by requiring more public reporting of price hikes. The lawmakers approved a bill that would require drug manufacturers to notify health plans and state purchasers such as the prison department of increases in the wholesale cost of drugs in writing at least 90 days before the new costs were to take effect. (McGreevy, 5/30)
In other news from Sacramento —
Orange County Register:
Rehab Patient Brokering Is Rampant, But It’s Hard To Stop, Industry Says
Middlemen – known sometimes as “junkie hunters,” “body brokers” or “interventionists” – find patients around the country and essentially sell them (and their insurance coverage) to the center willing to pay the most, often to centers in Southern California. The practice warps an already arduous corner of the health care system, rehab operators and officials say, blurring the line between care and profiteering. Yet a bill to forbid and punish such patient brokering – SB 636 by Sen. Steven Bradford, D-Gardena – has been sitting in the California Senate since February, confined to a committee, with no hearings scheduled. (Sforza, Saavedra and Schwebke, 5/30)
KPCC:
California Senate Votes To Beef Up Superbug Tracking
The California Senate Tuesday approved a bill that would give the state the power to greatly expand the list of so-called superbug infections that hospitals would have to report. Currently, California requires hospitals to report three types of antibiotic-resistant infections. Under SB 43, the state department of public health could increase that list to 18. That's how many infections are listed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as "urgent," "serious" or "concerning." The bill would also require the state to report the number of deaths caused by these infections each year. (Faust, 5/30)
Covered California & The Health Law
A Tale As Old As Time: Trying To Fix California's Health Care System
Efforts to improve health care in the state aren't new. As the vote on a single-payer system nears, take a look back at past efforts.
KPCC:
California's Long History Of Efforts At Health Care Reform
The California Senate is set to vote on a bill that would create a state-run health care system this week. It's far from the first time the state has contemplated such a major reform. In fact, attempts to improve how health care is handled in California date back 100 years." Given this picture of increasing cost, health care inefficiencies, and the uncertainty created in Congress, it is critical that California chart our own path," Sen. Ricardo Lara (D-Bell Gardens) told the senate appropriations committee last week. He's the author of SB 562, which would create a single-payer system. (Faust, 5/30)
California Healthline:
California’s New Single-Payer Proposal Embraces Some Costly Old Ways
Three of the dirtiest words in health care are “fee for service.” For years, U.S. officials have sought to move Medicare away from paying doctors and hospitals for each task they perform, a costly approach that rewards the quantity of care over quality. State Medicaid programs and private insurers are pursuing similar changes. Yet the $400 billion single-payer proposal that’s advancing in the California legislature would restore fee-for-service to its once-dominant perch in California. (Terhune, 5/31)
Three Northern California Planned Parenthood Clinics To Shutter Due To Financial Woes
The clinics have been suffering with low reimbursement rates from the state Medi-Cal program, a spokeswoman for the organizations said.
Sacramento Bee:
Planned Parenthood To Close Three Clinics, Citing Inadequate State Funds
Planned Parenthood will close three clinics in Northern California at the end of June to consolidate dwindling financial resources, the organization confirmed Tuesday. Locations in Vacaville, Pittsburg and central Richmond will close June 30, according to Miriam Gerace, a spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood Northern California. (Caiola, 5/30)
Transgender Americans Face Variety Of Health Disparities, Study Finds
Among other issues, transgender adults are more likely to be depressed, overweight and uninsured than people whose gender identity matches their gender at birth.
Los Angeles Times:
Being Transgender In America May Be Hazardous To Your Health, Study Shows
A new report in JAMA Internal Medicine characterizes a variety of health disparities between people who are transgender (that is, their gender identity is not the same as their gender at birth) and people who are cisgender (their gender identity matches their gender at birth). Spoiler alert: There are many. (Kaplan, 5/30)
In other public health news —
KPBS:
CDC: California Alzheimer's Deaths Jump 87 Percent Since 1999
Death rates from Alzheimer's disease nationwide increased 55 percent between 1999 and 2014, the Centers for Disease Control reported last week, with California deaths rising 87 percent. There are many reasons for those jumps, according to the research, including an aging population and better diagnoses. (Cavanaugh and Lipkin, 5/30)
Two Republican Senators Temper Expectations On Completely Scrapping Health Law
Sens. Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst, both active players in the health care debate, admitted that completely repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act doesn't look like it's going to be in the cards.
The Associated Press:
Iowa's GOP Senators Cast Doubt On Health Care Law Repeal
Lowering expectations, Iowa's two Republican senators say the long-promised repeal of "Obamacare" is unlikely, and any final agreement with the Republican-controlled House is uncertain. The comments Tuesday by Sens. Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst come as the Republican-controlled Senate moves forward on its work to dismantle the 2010 health care bill while facing conflicting demands within their own party and lockstep Democratic opposition. Both senators are active players in the health care debate. (5/31)
The Wall Street Journal:
Trump Wants Senate Rules Changed To Speed Up Health-Care, Tax Legislation
President Donald Trump called for a change to Senate rules to allow all bills to pass with a simple majority, elbowing aside Senate Republicans’ current legislative strategy on taxes and health care that already rests on obtaining such a majority. “The U.S. Senate should switch to 51 votes, immediately, and get Healthcare and TAX CUTS approved, fast and easy. Dems would do it, no doubt!” Mr. Trump wrote on Twitter. (Radnofsky, Rubin and Hughes, 5/30)
McClatchy:
Obamacare Repeal Legislation Could Bring "Junk Insurance" To Millions
If certain parts of the House Republican health care bill become law, states that opt out of Obamacare protections could see an explosion of “junk insurance” in their individual markets – which could leave millions of people with very little coverage. Such plans often can be dirt-cheap, but they offer so few benefits that the recent Congressional Budget Office score on the Republicans’ American Health Care Act said such coverage basically amounted to no coverage at all. (Pugh, 5/30)
USA Today:
Medicaid Chief Seema Verma Blames Obamacare's Collapse On Its Founders
When the Obamacare insurance exchanges collapse and leave some Americans stranded without health coverage, top Trump administration official Seema Verma says, blame the folks who created them in the first place. "Right now, if we look at it, this is all because of the Affordable Care Act," says Verma, the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. "I mean, the individual market was working much better than it is now, so this is all the impact of the Affordable Care Act." (Page, 5/30)