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Anthem Blue Cross Fined For Poor Handling Of Consumer Grievances
With a big merger pending, the health insurance giant is slammed with a $415,000 penalty from state regulators for inadequate attention to consumer complaints. (Ana B. Ibarra and Chad Terhune, 5/3)
More News From Across The State
State Fines Anthem Blue Cross $415K For Ignoring Consumers' Grievances
The Department of Managed Health Care found 40 cases involving 83 violations where Anthem deprived its customers of grievance and appeal rights.
KPCC:
California Fines Anthem Blue Cross For Violating Customers' Grievance Rights
The Department of Managed Health Care said Tuesday that it has fined Anthem Blue Cross $415,000 for violating some of its health plan members' grievance and appeal rights. The penalty levied against Anthem Blue Cross involved 83 violations in 40 cases. They include failure to adequately consider and resolve an enrollee’s grievance; failure to resolve a grievance within the 30-day time frame set forth under state law; failure to adequately explain the reason for denying treatment; and failure to respond in a timely fashion to Managed Health Care's investigation. (O'Neill, 5/3)
The Sacramento Business Journal:
Anthem Blue Cross Fined For Ignoring Consumer Rights
Under state law, health plan members have the right to know why a health plan has denied a procedure, treatment or service. Members have a right to file a grievance if they disagree with the insurer, and they have the right to file a complaint and request an independent medical review from the DMHC. (Anderson, 5/4)
California Healthline:
Anthem Blue Cross Fined For Poor Handling Of Consumer Grievances
The agency said Anthem must provide a detailed report within 90 days on the actions it has taken to fix these violations. “The DMHC is committed to protecting the health care rights of Californians,” said Shelley Rouillard, the agency’s director. “The grievance process is fundamental to ensuring members receive needed health care services with their health plans.” Darrel Ng, an Anthem spokesman, said the company is paying the fine and continues to work on resolving the issue. (Ibarra and Terhune, 5/3)
Sutter Places Second In Ranking Of Nation's Most Profitable Hospitals
Hospital officials, however, called the results “fundamentally flawed," saying the authors missed $240 million of expenses.
The Sacramento Bee:
Sutter Among Nation’s Most Profitable Hospitals, Study Finds
Sacramento’s Sutter Medical Center ranked No. 2 in the nation for highest profits from patient care, according to a study of 2,993 acute care hospitals released this week in the journal Health Affairs. The report, which only covers 2013, lists Sutter, a not-for-profit hospital, with a total patient care services profit of $271.9 million that year. (Buck and Caiola, 5/3)
In other hospital news —
The Ventura County Star:
Long-Awaited ICU For Kids Opens Tuesday At Los Robles
A long-awaited intensive care unit for children opened at 8 a.m. Tuesday at Los Robles Hospital & Medical Center in Thousand Oaks. The four-bed pediatric ICU is designed to provide care for children with medical needs that might otherwise mean being transferred out of the community. Patients could include youths injured in accidents or diagnosed with conditions that may require ventilators, constant monitoring or other specialized care. (Kisken, 5/3)
The San Francisco Business Times:
UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital Oakland Hits Milestone For New Outpatient Center
It's been a long time coming, but UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital Oakland "topped out" its new outpatient center's six-story steel skeleton recently. (Rauber, 5/3)
Nurses Walk Out Over 'Unsafe Staffing' At Dignity Health In Bakersfield
Mary Lynn Briggs, a nurse at Mercy and Mercy Southwest and member of the California Nurses Association, says units in the hospitals are not being provided with break relief, meaning nurses are having to work 12-hour shifts without a break.
The Bakersfield Californian:
Nurses Protest For Change In Staffing At Dignity Health
Members of the California Nurses Association from Mercy, Mercy Southwest and Memorial marched at Dignity Health in protest of short staffing on their floors. Mary Lynn Briggs, a nurse at Mercy and Mercy Southwest and member of the California Nurses Association, said they have had numerous meetings with management to voice their staffing concerns. She said management has made no staffing changes since they started having these meetings. (Hall, 5/3)
Meanwhile, an effort to close the budget gap at UC Berkeley leads to uncertainty for its medical school program —
The San Jose Mercury News:
Cost Of Cutting UC Berkeley Program? Desperately Needed Doctors
UC Berkeley's plan to close a $150 million budget deficit has created great uncertainty across campus -- and perhaps nowhere more than at a unique medical school program that mints some of the country's most desperately needed doctors: primary care physicians. (Murphy and Seipel, 5/3)
Federal Lawsuit Against Nation's Largest Medical Marijuana Dispensary Dismissed
The civil forfeiture action was filed by former U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag in 2012, after which the city of Oakland came to the defense of the Harborside Health Center by filing its own suit to block the seizure.
Reuters:
U.S. To End Bid To Close Major California Pot Dispensary -Lawyers
Federal prosecutors have agreed to dismiss a four-year-old forfeiture case in northern California aimed at shutting down the largest medical marijuana dispensary in the United States, attorneys for the clinic said on Tuesday. (Christie, 5/4)
Bay Area News Group:
City Officials: Feds Drop Lawsuit On Harborside, Oakland's Largest Medical Marijuana Dispensary
A lawsuit against the nation's largest medical marijuana dispensary has gone up in smoke after Oakland city officials announced Tuesday that the federal lawsuit has been dropped. The U.S. attorney's office would not confirm the status of the civil forfeiture suit, filed by former U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag in 2012. Haag's action threatened the Harborside Health Center property in Oakland with seizure on the basis that the building was being used for illegal activity. (Ruggiero, 5/4)
Orange County's Eight-Fold Increase In Autism Rates Stems From Diagnostic Shift, Report Finds
Researchers suggest children who once were categorized as having one type of developmental disability are now being shifted into the autism or ADHD category as a result of better diagnosis.
KPCC:
New Report Explains OC's Dramatic Rise In Autism Diagnoses
Orange County has the highest number and rate of children with autism in the state but a new report released Tuesday by Chapman University suggests the eight-fold increase over the last 15 years might be related to how psychologists are diagnosing the developmental disability. (Aguilar, 5/3)
In other public health news —
The Bakersfield Californian:
Kern Health Officials Confirm First Whooping Cough Death Of 2016
Pertussis, better known as whooping cough, has claimed the life of an infant in Kern County. It’s the first death from whooping cough confirmed in Kern this year, and the first death from the disease in Kern County since 2009, county health officials said in a news release Tuesday. (5/3)
Researchers Call For Better Tracking Of Medical Errors As They Climb To No. 3 Cause Of Deaths
Only heart disease and cancer take more lives than medical errors in America, and the exact toll is unknown because the coding system used by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to record death certificate data doesn't capture things like communication breakdowns, diagnostic errors and poor judgment that cost lives, says a new study in the journal BMJ.
The San Diego Union-Tribune:
Medical Errors 3rd Leading Cause Of Death, Study Finds
NPR/ProPublica:
Medical Errors Are No. 3 Cause Of U.S Deaths, Researchers Say
The New York Times:
Medical Errors May Cause Over 250,000 Deaths A Year
The Washington Post:
Researchers: Medical Errors Now Third Leading Cause Of Death In United States
CDC: Doctors Too Frequently Prescribing Medication Over Therapy For Kids With ADHD
Three out of four children diagnosed with ADHD are put on medications even though research has found behavioral therapy to be effective. But health insurance coverage of the treatment can vary, and therapists can be hard to find in some areas.
The Associated Press:
CDC: Preschoolers With ADHD Often Given Drugs Before Therapy
Too many preschoolers with ADHD still are being put on drugs right away, before behavior therapy is tried, health officials say. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Tuesday that three in four young kids diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder are put on medicines. New CDC data shows that's continued, even after research found behavior therapy is as effective and doesn't give children stomach aches, sleep problems or other drug side effects. (5/3)
Los Angeles Times:
For Little Children With ADHD, More Than A Pill Is Best
Among the littlest people diagnosed with attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder--ADHD--nearly half get no more help dealing with their distractedness, impulsiveness and hyperactivity than that provided by prescription medication, says a new government report. That's despite the fact that for these patients--children ages 2 to 5 diagnosed with ADHD--behavior therapy can help children develop self-control, organizational skills and coping mechanisms, tools that would help them over the long run. (Healy, 5/3)
In other national health care news —
The Associated Press:
Prince's Death: The View From Front Lines Of Drug Epidemic
On the front lines of America's fight against a drug-abuse epidemic, there have been emotional, sometimes contradictory reactions to news that investigators are looking into whether Prince died of an overdose. Those engaged in the fight say a celebrity's death can help raise awareness of the problems yet also overshadow the other victims dying by the hundreds every week. Others suggest the attention to celebrity deaths is transitory and has limited impact. (5/3)
The Washington Post:
Pondering ‘What It Means To Be Human’ On The Frontier Of Gene Editing
People in pain write to Jennifer Doudna. They have a congenital illness. Or they have a sick child. Or they carry the gene for Huntington’s disease or some other dreadful time bomb wired through every cell in their body. They know that Doudna helped invent an extraordinary new gene-editing technology, known as CRISPR. But they don’t all seek her help. One woman, the mother of a child with Down syndrome, explained: “I love my child and wouldn’t change him. There’s something about him that’s so special. He’s so loving in a way that’s unique to him. I wouldn’t change it.” The scientist tears up telling this story. “It makes you think hard about what it means to be human, doesn’t it?” she says. (Achenbach, 5/3)