Latest California Healthline Stories
Assembly Approves Race, Ethnicity in Quality Reporting
The Assembly yesterday passed a bill that requires state officials to include race and ethnicity when compiling health care quality data.
AB 411 by Assembly member Richard Pan (D-Sacramento) would not create any kind of difficulty for state officials, since that data already exists, according to Pan. The point is to make state officials use it, Pan said.
“It’s similar to the way MRMIB (Managed Risk Medical Insurance Board) used to analyze Healthy Families data,” Pan said. “This is a vital thing that we need to do.”
How Exchange Hopes To Reach Enrollees
Covered California exchange officials on Tuesday awarded $37 million in outreach grants to 48 community-based organizations. Those groups all have a wide reach, and represent a much bigger bloc of community organizations, according to Peter Lee, executive director of the California Health Benefit Exchange, now known as Covered California.
“We are talking about 250 organizations within these 48 groups,” Lee said. “We encourage them to work together so what you’re seeing here is partnership.”
Lee said applicants were encouraged to aim high, because the exchange wants to reach as many people as possible and so much of the target market — a multi-cultural, low-income and multilingual population — is difficult to reach.
State Still Looks to Dun County Funds in Medi-Cal Expansion Proposal
The optional expansion of Medi-Cal will be administered using a state-based approach rather than the county-based plan being considered by California officials, the governor said yesterday when he proposed his May revise, the mid-year revision of the state budget.
That comes as welcome news to county health officials who have cautioned for months that a county-based system would be more confusing and costly than a state-based approach.
Gov. Jerry Brown listened, apparently.
“We want to do it generously, and boldly,” Brown said of the optional expansion. “There are some questions out there, so we want to do it prudently. It’s a matter of equity, and it’s something we’ll work out over the next few years.”
Stop-Loss Bill Heads for Senate Floor Vote
The Senate Committee on Appropriations yesterday approved a bill to ban a certain type of selection criteria when insurers issue stop-loss health care coverage to small employers.
The bill was one of a small mountain of bills before the Appropriations committee yesterday. The policy committees have finished their legislative work for this session, and bills need to either clear Appropriations this week or be put on suspense to wait for next session. The committee yesterday put 76 proposed laws on the suspense file.
Health Information Sharing Deal Announced
The health information world in California is getting more connected. Many large and small HIE networks have signed an agreement to share information, state officials announced last week at the annual HIE Summit in Sacramento.
“We have been working with the leadership of HIE around California to help them establish self-governance of exchanges across the state,” said Pamela Lane, deputy secretary of health information exchange for the state’s Health and Human Services agency.
Lane said there has been an information-sharing gap between the large HIE systems — such as Kaiser, the Veterans Administration and Sutter Health — and the smaller, community HIE systems. Getting those disparate groups to agree to share information has been difficult, she said.
‘So Many Moving Parts’ To Fit Together
The Department of Health Care Services announced this week that the Cal MediConnect duals demonstration project will not start until at least January, 2014, a delay from its previous expected launch date in October, 2013.
Advocates for seniors’ health care yesterday praised the decision, saying the extra three months will go a long way toward pulling all of the disparate pieces of Cal MediConnect into place.
“I think [the delay] comes from the general recognition that so many things have to happen, for so many people, speaking so many languages,” said Jack Hailey, project manager for Government Action and Communication Institute, and a contributor to the California Collaborative for Long Term Services and Supports.
Provider Cut Repeal Talk Turns to Veto Override
Two bills repealing the 2011 Medi-Cal provider reimbursement rate reductions have sailed through California legislative committees so far in an unusual way: They’ve been approved with unanimous votes in both houses from both parties.
But all those Yes votes could fail on a single No vote if Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown vetoes the bills. He has 50 million reasons every month to use his veto stamp. The savings to the state from the 10% across-the-board Medi-Cal provider rate cut amounts to an estimated $600 million a year.
Compromise Proposed for Medi-Cal Expansion
A new plan is expected to be unveiled today offering a compromise approach to the state’s optional Medi-Cal expansion.
Health Access California, a not-for-profit health advocacy organization came up with the plan as a bridge between the state’s rough outline in the budget for two choices — a state-administered or county-administered approach.
More than one million Californians will be newly eligible for Medi-Cal under the optional expansion to those people making up to 138% of federal poverty level. The federal government will pay 100% of expansion costs for the first three years, and 90% thereafter.
Medi-Cal Outreach Gets Big Boost
If the state won’t pay for it, one private donor will. The California Endowment yesterday committed $26.5 million to fund the state’s Medi-Cal expansion outreach under the Affordable Care Act.
The Assembly Budget Subcommittee on Human Services yesterday voted unanimously 3-0 to accept the contribution and directed state officials to apply for federal matching funds for a total of $53 million in outreach money.
“The success or failure of Obamacare will depend on how many will enroll,” said Daniel Zingale, senior vice president for the Endowment. “In this state, it’s enormously challenging. … We have more uninsured here than many other states have people.”
Snickers, Seriousness Expected for Junk Food Bill
This week, an Assembly committee will take up a plan to change the foods offered in vending machines in state buildings. No more empty calories for state workers, according to the proposed law.
AB 459 by Assembly member Holly Mitchell (D-Los Angeles) is scheduled to be heard Wednesday in the Assembly Committee on Appropriations. A similar bill authored by Mitchell last year stalled in committee. This year’s bill earned initial approval two weeks ago in the Business and Professions Committee.
According to Harold Goldstein, executive director of the California Center for Public Health Advocacy, the debate over the bill boils down to a fundamental issue.