Latest California Healthline Stories
Adult Day Care Transition Gets Another Month
The state’s move on Friday to shift the transition date for Adult Day Health Care elimination by a month was borne of a request by CMS, according to officials from the Department of Health Care Services.
Advocates say the delay may be due to the scattered nature of the state’s transition so far.
“It’s been a royal mess,” Corinne Jan of the Family Bridges ADHC in Oakland said. “Lots of duplications on the lists. Some people got a notice they were eligible [for the alternate program], then another saying they’re not. Lots of confusion.”
More Uninsured Could Put Pressure on State
A UCLA Center for Health Policy Research report showed that 670,000 Californians lost employer-based health insurance in 2008 and 2009. That is a far cry from the earlier estimate of 2 million newly uninsured in the state. But what’s interesting about the new number, according to the report’s lead author Shana Lavarreda, is that it indicates that a new class of uninsured has been rising.
“The uninsured here is less and less an undocumented [worker] problem, and now it’s more of a Main Street problem,” Lavarreda said.
A majority — if not all — of those working-age Californians who lost coverage over that two-year period could have been considered residents of “Main Street.”
Can Health Equity Be a Moneymaker?
Sometimes the right thing might also be the financially beneficial thing.
Physician groups are gathering today in Sacramento for a conference on disparities in health care related to race, language and geography. This time, the debate is not just about the moral imperative to promote equity in health care, but also about the clinical and financial impetus to make that move.
“The thing that has changed, as more people are brought into systems of care with accountability, health organizations are going to be looking at avoidable cost as well as avoidable risk,” according to Wells Shoemaker, medical director of the California Association of Physician Groups, which organized the conference.”It’s sort of the low-hanging fruit when you’re looking for avoidable costs.”
Can Regional Planning be a Health Issue?
Earlier this week, Assembly member Bill Monning (D-Carmel) made a memorable appearance at a Capitol Building briefing on the health care needs and opportunities for minorities in California.
Monning held up a bright yellow plastic barrel-shaped mug by its thick handle — it was almost a foot tall and looked like it weighed a couple of pounds.
“On the way up here, I went into an AM/PM [market], and saw this thing,” Monning said, hefting the giant mug with the Too Much Good Stuff logo on it. “If you bought one of these, you’d get a free soda. They’d fill this thing up for you.”
Getting a Head Start on Medi-Cal Expansion
For a program no one’s really heard of, this one is pretty successful.
Counties started enrolling people into the Low-Income Health Program in July 2011, and four months later (at the most recent count in November) about 260,000 Californians were enrolled in it, according to Linda Leu, a health care policy analyst with Health Access California.
“It is a really great opportunity for those who are low-income, and who have been left out of programs like Medicaid [or, in California, Medi-Cal],” Leu said.
And with an acronym like LIHP, the perfect time to publicize the program is on Valentine’s Day, she said.
State Considers Coverage Mandates
The deadline to pass legislation left over from last year has come and gone, with single payer, insurance rate regulation and the basic health plan all temporarily halted. The next big legislative push is coming up fast, as all new bills for 2012 have to be introduced by the end of next week, on Feb. 24.
A number of health-related laws recently were passed by the state Senate or Assembly. Many of them call for coverage mandates by health insurance providers.
Report Looks at SHOP Exchange Viability
The first series of forums put on by Small Business Majority went to small towns and cities across California to raise the notion of a business-specific health insurance exchange — the Small Business Health Options Program, known as SHOP. The idea is to pool small business resources and buying power — separate from the California Health Benefit Exchange’s individual market — so business owners can get a better, more financially stable option for health insurance.
Now, a second set of forums — with experts from California, as well as from other states that have tried similar projects — has finished. This week the Small Business Majority released a report summarizing the points brought up in those forums.
“Affordability is the number one issue to small business owners,” according to Terry Gardiner of Small Business Majority. “Most companies who have not offered insurance say it’s because it’s too expensive, they cant afford it. And the ones who actually are providing coverage, they are struggling.”
Same Providers in Healthy Families and Medi-Cal?
Yesterday’s distribution of a summary of new Healthy Families data by the state Department of Health Care Services caused some advocates to scratch their heads.
The state wants to move 875,000 children out of Healthy Families and into Medi-Cal in the next 16 months. It’s an idea that has been floated before, and has been vigorously opposed by providers, who would rather have the higher reimbursement of Healthy Families. California’s Medi-Cal reimbursement rates are among the lowest Medicaid rates in the nation.
The new data indicate most providers and health plans in the Healthy Families program also serve Medi-Cal beneficiaries.
Douglas: Healthy Families Similar to Medi-Cal
State Department of Health Care Services Director Toby Douglas explained the reasoning behind the state’s plans for the Healthy Families program during the Insure the Uninsured Project’s 16th annual statewide conference in Sacramento yesterday.
Acknowledging that the proposal to shift 875,000 children out of Healthy Families and into Medi-Cal on a relatively fast timeline is a little controversial, Douglas said it’s part of a bigger plan.
“It’s all about delivery system reform,” Douglas said. “It’s about moving toward organized delivery systems.”
Study: Uninsured Face Similar Debt as Medi-Cal Beneficiaries
More Californians are borrowing money to pay for health care services — and two-thirds of them have medical insurance, according to a new study by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research.
“When you think you’re insured, you still end up paying a percentage and that adds up, into thousands of dollars,” report author Shana Alex Lavarreda said. “So having insurance doesn’t mean you will have things paid for.”
Another surprising finding, Lavarreda said, is that uninsured Californians face a similar medical debt level to those who have insurance through Medi-Cal.