Latest California Healthline Stories
California Hospitals Team Up on Disaster Plans, but Federal Budget Cuts Could Affect Efforts
Cheri Hummel of the California Hospital Association, Kurt Kainsinger of UCLA Healthcare System, Claudia Marroquin-Frometa of Centinela Hospital Medical Center and Lisa Schoenthal of the California Emergency Medical Services Authority spoke with California Healthline about how California hospitals are forming partnerships to strengthen their disaster preparedness plans.
Governor Nixes Long List of Health Bills
Gov. Jerry Brown (D) vetoed a number of health care bills over the weekend. They ranged from a program designed to improve flu vaccinations among health care workers, to a proposal to define and promote patient-centered medical homes, to a regulation on hospital-nurse staffing ratios.
The governor had a variety of reasons he gave for the different vetoes, but at least one of those explanations didn’t make much sense, according Assembly member Henry Perea (D-Fresno). Perea is the author of AB 1000, a measure designed to make oral chemotherapy more affordable and accessible for Californians.
“While I support the author’s efforts to make oral chemotherapy treatments more affordable for the insured, this bill doesn’t distinguish between health plans and insurers who make these drugs available at a reasonable cost and those who do not,” Brown wrote in his veto message.
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.
California Sees Increase in Parents Seeking Exemptions From Vaccination Requirements
Oakland pediatrician Bruce Horwitz, Barbara Loe Fisher of the National Vaccine Information Center, John Talarico of the state Department of Public Health and a parent who plans to apply for a personal belief exemption spoke with California Healthline about the growing trend of parents seeking vaccine exemptions.
Misuse of Prescription Painkillers Becoming More Widespread Among Young Californians
Tom Lenox of the Drug Enforcement Administration, Michael Plopper of Sharp HealthCare Behavioral Health Services, Sherrie Rubin of the not-for-profit organization HOPE and Robert Wailes of the California Medical Association’s board of trustees spoke with California Healthline about prescription drug misuse.
California Lags in Nurse-to-Resident Ratio Despite Increase in Nursing School Graduates
Deloras Jones of the California Institute for Nursing & Health Care, Pamela Lassetter of the Fresno Regional Workforce Investment Board and DeAnn McEwen of the California Nurses Association’s Council of Presidents spoke with California Healthline about the state’s nurse-to-resident ratio.
Fresno County Projects Address Teen Drug Abuse
Teenage prescription drug abuse, considered a serious problem statewide, is the focus of Fresno County projects aimed at helping parents lock up, clean out and safely drop off unused narcotics.
New Evidence of Seniors’ Vulnerability
Kathryn Kietzman and other researchers from the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research conducted a series of interviews with California seniors and their families over a one-year period. Their ongoing monitoring yielded worrisome results, Kietzman said — particularly seeing the effect on those seniors of a number of seemingly small budget cuts.
“Even those seniors with low-level needs were strongly affected by these cuts,” Kietzman said, referring primarily to a 3.6% reduction in In-Home Supportive Services and also to a cutback in monthly Supplemental Security Income and State Supplementary Payments. “What we saw was a culmination of sometimes little cuts, sometimes bigger cuts,” she said. “Many times we follow these things at the policy level, but [here] we’ve seen changes at the individual level, particularly for people with chronic care conditions.”
Those cutbacks don’t begin to compare with the state’s trigger cut of 20% of IHSS care, and a state-estimated halving of service to people currently receiving adult day health care services, Kietzman said.
Santa Barbara Allowed To Levy Temporary Tax
Santa Barbara County will be able to increase penalties on drunk driving fines in order to fund emergency services as a result of a new state law that barely escaped veto by Gov. Jerry Brown (D).
In the waning hours of the legislative session last week, Brown issued a letter that criticized the method of generating emergency department revenues, although he stopped just short of blocking the bill that had received wide support in the Assembly and Senate.
AB 412 introduced by Das Williams (D-Santa Barbara) becomes law without Brown’s signature. And Santa Barbara County can on Jan. 1 begin collecting an extra surcharge on tickets issued for driving under the influence offenses. An extra $5 for every $10 of base fines can be assessed as a penalty to fund ED services.
Bridget Duffy of ExperiaHealth Discusses How Empowering Patients Can Help Improve Care
Bridget Duffy, CEO of ExperiaHealth, spoke with California Healthline about efforts to help patients navigate the health care system and the benefits of focusing on patient experience.