Latest California Healthline Stories
UCLA Study Shows Why One of the Biggest Obamacare Fears May Not Come To Pass
California’s Low Income Health Plan ended nearly a year ago. But UCLA researchers think the state’s early Medi-Cal expansion can inform how we think about Obamacare implementation — and emergency department use, in particular.
Sale of Six Hospitals to Prime Advances; Next Stop, Attorney General’s Office
Despite ongoing protests, officials at not-for-profit Daughters of Charity Health System said last week the sale of six safety-net hospitals to for-profit Prime Healthcare will move forward.
Judicial Ruling on East Bay Hospital’s Closure Complicated by Patient’s Death
The fate of Doctors Medical Center in San Pablo — and the people served by it — could be decided in an upcoming Superior Court ruling.
Hospital Sale Bill Fails on Assembly Floor
A bill to expand the state attorney general’s power to change the terms of some hospital sales could not muster enough support in the Assembly to advance.
Unions Oppose Bid by Health Care Chain
Prime Healthcare’s possible purchase of six not-for-profit hospitals in California has drawn opposition from labor unions that warn for-profit Prime may cut worker benefits and shred safety-net services. Prime officials would neither confirm nor deny negotiations are under way.
Loma Linda University Health Plans $1.2B Inland Empire Expansion
Loma Linda University Health officials expect a proposed $1.2 billion expansion to position the health system as one of the leading health care providers in the Inland Empire region. Unaffiliated health care analysts agree.
Hospital Mergers Are Out. ‘Strategic Alliances’ Are In. Is Obamacare Responsible?
Dignity Health and Kaiser are helping lead a new wave of deal making that focuses less on traditional mergers and more on quality alliances and joint ventures, as providers come together in the wake of the Affordable Care Act.
Inadequate State, Federal Payment Rates Forcing Hospital Closure, Officials Say
An East Bay hospital that serves a patient population that’s 90% Medi-Cal, Medicare or the uninsured is facing imminent shutdown. State and federal reimbursement rates make serving that population unsustainable, hospital officials say.
Bills Offer Two Approaches to Hospital Observation Status
We asked stakeholders to assess the strengths and weaknesses of two bills in the California Legislature seeking to clarify the complex and financially significant issue of “observation status” in acute care hospitals.
Hospital Funding Measure Won’t Qualify in Time for November 2014 Ballot
A ballot initiative designed to make a hospital fee and funding mechanism permanent probably will have to wait till 2016 because the verification process for petition signatures liekly will take too long for the measure to make it to the ballot this year.