Latest California Healthline Stories
Health Care Stakeholders Await State of State, Special Session
The State of the State speech today by Gov. Jerry Brown (D) could kick off a flurry of health care activity in California.
The governor is expected to address the state’s decision to join the Medicaid expansion (Medi-Cal in California) in today’s speech. Two options proposed by Brown — county- and state-based plans — will be hashed out in the upcoming month or two, most likely during the Legislature’s special session on health care. State health officials have said the special session will be called by Brown by the end of January.
All of that has to be worked out relatively soon, according to Lucien Wulsin, executive director of the Insure the Uninsured Project.
Exchange Readies Its New Website
Covered California, the new brand name for the state’s health benefit exchange, will unveil its new website next week, according to Oscar Hidalgo, director of communication and public affairs at the exchange.
Hidalgo spoke at last week’s exchange board meeting, presenting one of the first building blocks of the marketing structure, an informational website.
“We are just about to launch a consumer-friendly website at the end of the month,” Hidalgo said. He said the unveiling is expected to be Wednesday or Thursday next week.
California Behind National Curve in Care for Chronically Ill Children
California is behind the national curve in caring for chronically ill children, according to a study released last week by the Lucile Packard Foundation for Children’s Health based in Palo Alto.
In particular, the coordination of care and access to specialists for California’s chronically ill children ranks among the worst six states in the nation, according to the study.
Covered California Lands $674 Million Federal Grant
Peter Lee could hardly contain himself yesterday.
“In 2010, California was the first state in the nation to say we want a state-based exchange. Then, earlier this month, the federal government approved our blueprint for the exchange,” said Lee, the executive director of the state’s health insurance exchange, Covered California.
“And now,” Lee said, “the feds have given us the resources we need to launch Covered California. This is an historic moment.”
How Will Covered California Service Centers Work?
Service centers — the places where California consumers will be directed through an 800 phone number and a web portal to get answers to their exchange and eligibility questions — are on the agenda at today’s meeting of the Health Benefit Exchange board.
Betsy Imholz, director of the West Coast office of Consumers Union, hopes her questions about service centers will be answered at today’s meeting.
Consumers Union is one of 13 advocacy groups that signed onto a recent letter to the exchange board, asking for assurance that the board hasn’t yet adopted a particular type of protocol model for the service centers, a protocol that Imholz said could discourage people from participating in the exchange.
Assembly Hearing Addresses Issues of Risk
It was not your usual subject for an Assembly hearing in the Capitol Building.
Yesterday’s hearing convened by the Assembly Committee on Health took on the arcane and important subject of adverse selection and risk pools. The nerdy-tech tone of the hearing was not lost on its participants.
“I have to applaud the committee — for taking on such a dry topic,” said David Panush, director of government relations for Covered California, the state’s health exchange. “But it is so important. I’m really glad to see it.”
Provider Rate Cut Case May Linger
The state budget proposed by Gov. Brown counts on $488.4 million in savings from rate reductions to Medi-Cal providers in keeping with a law passed in 2011 that hasn’t yet been implemented because it’s been held up in court.
Last month, a three-judge panel in federal Circuit Court overruled previous injunctions issued by federal appellate judges. However, the injunctions will remain in place and provider reimbursements won’t be cut at least until the end of this month. Litigants in each of the four lawsuits have until Jan. 28 to file a re-hearing request.
At least one of those litigants — the California Hospital Association — is going to file a re-hearing request, according to Jan Emerson-Shea, CHA’s vice president of external affairs.
Hospital Tax May Go to Reserve
The state budget proposed by Gov. Jerry Brown extends the Hospital Quality Assurance fee, which is due to expire at the end of 2013. The complicated fee structure was originally planned to gather about $2.8 billion from private hospitals over the 30-month life of the fee. Some of the money is used to tap federal matching money, which benefits both hospitals and the state.
The state estimates extending the fee would add $310 million to the state’s general fund in fiscal year 2013-14.
Private hospitals have no problem paying the Hospital Quality Assurance fee, according to Jan Emerson-Shea, vice president of external affairs for the California Hospital Association.
Budget Called a ‘Godsend’ for Health Care Community
California Health and Human Services Secretary Diana Dooley summed up the health care impact of yesterday’s budget proposal this way:
“The good news is, there are no cuts,” Dooley said. “While we are not restoring anything, we are not cutting, either.”
That was a tremendous relief to Senate member Ed Hernandez (D-West Covina), chair of the Senate Committee on Health. After enduring year after year of multi-billion-dollar cuts to health programs, he said no budget news is good budget news.
Health Proponents Watching Budget for Medi-Cal Provider Rate Cut
Governor Jerry Brown today will release his plan to fix a projected $1.9 billion deficit in the state’s budget. Despite the recently rosier financial outlook for the state, many in the California health community still hold concerns that those new cuts may come out of the hide of health care.
“It sounds like education is going to be made whole, it sounds like prisons are going to be made whole, so yes, we’re fearing further cuts to health care,” said Francisco Silva, general counsel for the California Medical Association. “There is still a $1.9 billion deficit, after all.”
Silva was discussing the possible inclusion in the budget of a 10% Medi-Cal provider rate reimbursement cut that was approved by the state Legislature but has not gone into effect because it’s being challenged in court.