Latest California Healthline Stories
Tulare County Hospitals Want to Form LIHP
Senate member Jean Fuller (R-Bakersfield) is not interested in leaving federal health care dollars on the table.
That’s why she introduced a bill last week in the Senate Committee on Health that would enable local hospital districts in Tulare County to gain access to about $4.5 million in federal money over the next 18 months for a local Low Income Health Program (LIHP).
“Under current law, the county’s non-participation [in LIHP] precludes hospitals from leveraging the federal dollars that are available under the Medicaid waiver,” Fuller said last week in a Senate health hearing. “We can improve health care access with this, particularly in rural areas.”
Inland Empire Hospitals Grapple With Chronic Bed Shortage
With a chronic shortage of hospital beds, Inland Empire hospitals are expected to be sheltered from fiscal pressures from the federal health reform law, and at least one hospital has plans to expand instead of making cuts.
Kim Dempsey of NCB Capital Impact Discusses Ways To Boost Capacity of Community Clinics
Kim Dempsey, director of innovation and strategy at NCB Capital Impact, spoke with California Healthline about recommendations for improving the operations of community health centers.
Health Care Lobbying in California Tops List in Record Year
Health care issues generated $35.7 million in lobbying last year in California, leading the way to a record year. Lobbyists earned more money from more clients in California in 2011 than ever before, according to the secretary of state.
Dental Problems Showing Up as Emergencies
A study being released today by the Pew Foundation found that 83,000 emergency department visits in California in 2007 were due to preventable dental problems. That rate of dental emergencies is likely growing quickly, according to Shelly Gehshan, director of the national Pew Children’s Dental Campaign.
“It is the wrong service, in the wrong setting, at the wrong time,” Gehshan said.
“These are people who come in with dental pain, and they’re desperate. The emergency room can’t cure that, so they don’t really get the problem taken care of.”
Pre-Reform Pressures Mount for California Hospitals
California hospitals, already under significant financial pressure in 2012, may have to contend with two proposed state ballot initiatives that would increase charity care provisions for some hospitals and limit what hospitals can charge patients. We asked stakeholders to weigh in on the initiatives.
How Can California Make Most of Volatile Marketplace?
We asked experts and policymakers how the state can best take advantage of competition and consolidation in the health care industry to ensure that the entire system — and ultimately California consumers — benefit.
California Hospitals Ask Courts To Halt Cuts
Some California hospitals would take a significant and long-lasting hit from Medi-Cal reimbursement cuts recently approved by CMS, according to the California Hospital Association, which this week filed a petition in federal court to put a temporary halt to those reductions.
CHA’s lawsuit and injunction request are separate from the court action taken earlier this week by the California Medical Association and other provider organizations.
“They’re two entirely different lawsuits,” Jan Emerson-Shea of CHA said. “We have filed a declaration with the court, asking the court to stop certain cuts that were approved by the CMS and were retroactive to June 1. It’s all related to the same set of cuts, but we’re suing based on the hospital cuts.”
Rural Critical Care Access Hospitals Could Get Hit
Health care services across the country are expecting to be slammed if the congressional debt-reduction super committee makes its deadline and submits a plan to reduce the federal deficit by Wednesday, but rural California could take a particularly big hit, according to a Washington, D.C., policy expert who spoke in Sacramento yesterday.
In addition to Medicare reimbursement rate cuts, other reduction proposals have included eliminating all rural hospital payment programs, according to David Lee, a governmental affairs expert for the National Rural Health Association.
“There are a number of possible cuts that directly affect rural health care, but this one — that all rural hospital payment programs could be abolished — has come up over and over again,” Lee said, addressing the annual conference of the California State Rural Health Association.
UC-Davis Wins Emergency Services Lawsuit
The courts have sided with UC-Davis Medical Center, ruling this week that Sacramento County must pay for emergency services for indigent patients.
Superior Court Judge Lloyd Connelly said the county has a responsibility to pay for indigent care, whether the county contracts with a specific provider of those emergency services or not.
“The judge rejected every defense the county had to not pay us,” UC-Davis attorney David Levine said. “He conclusively confirmed that they owe us money, and they have to pay us.”