Latest California Healthline Stories
FTC, Calif. AG Put Pressure on M&A — and Confuse Providers
Compete — or consolidate? Lawmakers can’t seem to decide which approach they want hospitals and doctors to follow, and the mixed messages are causing confusion.
UC-San Diego Program Focuses on Designing Medical Devices
A new master’s degree program at UC-San Diego’s Jacobs School of Engineering is designed to help working engineers meet the evolving demands of one of San Diego’s fastest-growing industries — medical device design and manufacturing.
The Calif. Pilot That Could Prove ACOs Work
After several years of anticipation, early-stage accountable care organizations are beginning to report initial results. Leaders of a Sacramento-based pilot say they have demonstrated clear savings — and the model is replicable.
David Goodman of Dartmouth Discusses Efforts To Study Care Quality Across Patients’ Lifetimes
David Goodman — professor of pediatrics and health policy at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth and co-director of the Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care — spoke with California Healthline about efforts to study variations in care quality from the beginning to the end of life.
Tulare Hospital Takes Big Steps To Promote Breastfeeding
Tulare Regional Medical Center has quadrupled the number of new mothers exclusively breastfeeding in the hospital, moving from one of the lowest rates in Tulare County to the highest in just four years.
Safety-Net Hospitals Face Funding Cuts on Two Federal Fronts
Safety-net hospitals are facing a double-whammy of funding cuts: The Affordable Care Act lowers Medicaid payments to hospitals for uncompensated care and changes in Medicare reimbursements could mean further reductions in payments to safety-net hospitals.
Similar Procedures, Different Prices at California Hospitals
The cost of many hospital services varies widely across the state — with some facilities charging two or three times as much for a similar procedure, according to a report released yesterday by the California Public Interest Research Group.
Higher cost at one hospital doesn’t necessarily mean higher quality, according to Pedro Morillas, CalPIRG’s legislative director.
“Just because a specific hospital charges an arm and a leg doesn’t mean you’ll get better care there,” Morillas said. “Cost is not a corollary for better quality.”
California Hospitals Take Issue With Leapfrog Group’s Recent Report Card on Patient Safety
Leah Binder of the Leapfrog Group, Jan Emerson-Shea of the California Hospital Association, Ashish Jha of the Harvard School of Public Health and Nancy Pratt of Sharp HealthCare spoke with California Healthline about how California hospitals fared in the Leapfrog Group’s recent report card on patient safety.
Harold Miller of the Network for Regional Healthcare Improvement Discusses Innovation
Harold Miller, president and CEO of the Network for Regional Healthcare Improvement, spoke with California Healthline about the importance of pursuing innovative health care improvement strategies that are tailored to local needs.
Health Facilities Get Improvement Boost
The federal government yesterday issued $722 million in renovation and construction grants to community health centers, including $122 million in grants to California facilities.
Dean Germano, CEO of Shasta Community Health Center in Redding, said his center’s $5 million capital grant announced yesterday will pay for about half of a planned $10 million building addition.
“The plans are completed, and we were waiting on a decision from HHS to see if we could do this,” Germano said.