Latest California Healthline Stories
Basic Care, Medical Home, Home Care Act All Clear First Hurdle
A number of health care-related bills just met the deadline for passage out of house of origin. In a way, it’s a litmus test for whether or not bills have the political capital to become law, and quite a few health proposals made the initial cut.
The bills recently passed by the Assembly now head to the state Senate, and vice versa. Beyond the high-profile AB 52 by Mike Feuer (D-Los Angeles) to regulate health insurance rate hikes, there were several health-related bills that moved on:
Health Officials, Public Hospitals at Odds Over Fee
The state says it’s just shifting money around, and that everyone benefits from new federal financing tools known as CPEs — certified public expenditures.
Under the recent federal Medicaid waiver, California can get up to $400 million in federal funds for state-only programs, according to Toby Douglas, director of the California Department of Health Care Services. These are programs licensed or certified by the state providing care and services to a designated population, such as adult day health care or developmental disability care. Public hospitals provide some state-only services, and submit these certified public expenditures, or CPEs, to get federal matching funds.
“But we don’t have enough state-only expenditures, and public hospitals have expenditures beyond what they can get from the waiver,” Douglas said. “We can roll over that money … they get more federal funds, and we get to use their excess certified public expenditures to reach the $400 million mark.
‘Budget Dust’ Councils May Get Second Life
Three health care advisory committees were on the May revise chopping block, but now an Assembly subcommittee has voted to keep them.
When Assembly member Allan Mansoor (R-Costa Mesa) found out that one of the commissions up for elimination — the California Commission on Emergency Medical Services — was composed entirely of volunteers who are experts in their field, and that the state pays only for travel expenses for a grand total of $9,000 a year, he wondered aloud about the urgent need to disband it.
“If we’re going to review a commission,” Mansoor said, “let’s find one with a few more zeroes after it, maybe we want to find a more expensive commission to eliminate.”
Wet Protest, Dry Policy in Capitol
Diana Dooley summed it up nicely.
“First of all, I wanted to thank you all for the heavy lifting you did in March,” the secretary of California’s Health and Human Services Agency said yesterday in addressing members of a budget subcommittee on health and human services.
“These were difficult proposals to make, and difficult ones to respond to,” she said.
“And, regrettably, it’s not enough.”
Subcommittee Votes To Help CalWORKS Kids
The dog-and-pony-show nature of the budget subcommittee hearings was upended yesterday in a hearing on health and human services cutbacks.
The surprising vote at the tail end of yesterday’s hearing comes one day in advance of a flurry of subcommittee hearings in the Capitol building today, with accompanying Capitol demonstrations expected outside.
Also today, the Senate Rules Committee is expected to confirm the appointment of David Maxwell-Jolly as the new deputy director of California’s Health and Human Services Agency.
Closure of ADHC Centers May Be Expensive
It’s budget week at the Capitol. A slew of legislative hearings will deal with the newest wave of cuts proposed by Gov. Jerry Brown (D), most of which are expected to be approved.
The argument against health-related cuts almost always follows two points: The human toll of denying services is high; and in the long run, those cuts don’t actually save money. The reasoning is that health problems don’t go away and until people die, their health issues usually become more acute — and, in the long-term, more expensive.
In the case of adult day health care services, advocates say, the shift to higher-expense services has already started, and the state may not save any money, now or in the future, by cutting the $85 million needed to keep the program alive.
Amid Clinic Closures, One Health Care Center Keeps Expanding
State budget shortfalls, declining Medi-Cal reimbursement and recent federal cutbacks have led many community clinics in California to the financial edge. But the Sacramento Native American Health Center has bucked that trend and is expanding at a rapid rate — and it may offer a new model of care to handle the growing patient load in California.
Transition Money Designed To End ADHC
It’s a little complicated, when the governor sets aside $25 million for your program, and it’s a death knell for that program.
But that’s what has happened in the past week with the Adult Day Health Care (ADHC) program. The $25 million allocated by the state is to be used to help with a transition into program elimination.
That was the take-home message at a stakeholder meeting last Friday, and it was not exactly a vote of confidence from the governor’s office.
May Revise Targets Mental Health, Healthy Families and More
There were several major developments in California’s health policy world yesterday, with the release of Gov. Jerry Brown’s (D) May budget revise.
It started with an almost offhand comment from Brown:
“We are eliminating the Department of Mental Health,” Brown said. Then later he added, “We want to eliminate 43 boards and commissions in California.” One of those boards facing elimination is the Managed Risk Medical Insurance Board (MRMIB).
Mental health services and health care commissions aren’t the only things on the chopping block. Brown’s May revise also targets Healthy Families, and the state’s plan for adult day health care centers could be changing.
Senior Services Among Possible Budget Targets
Three innocuous-sounding words — the May revise — send shivers down the spines of health care advocates.
That budget adjustment is expected to be announced today (May 16), and Lydia Missaelides, for one, is worried.
“We’re all bracing for more cuts in the May revise,” Missaelides, executive director of the California Association of Adult Day Services, said, adding, “You know, we’re still in this politically sensitive position.”