Latest California Healthline Stories
Copay Proposal for Some Drugs, Emergency Visits
The Senate Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review last week approved a significantly scaled-down version of a copay proposal for Medi-Cal beneficiaries.
The Legislature last year passed a more extensive copay proposal that was projected to save $511 million in general fund dollars for the state. It called for $5 per physician visit and $50 for an emergency department visit . In February federal health care officials nixed that plan.
The current proposal would impose a copay of $3.10 for non-preferred drugs, with an exception for patients who receive those medications by mail, and a $15 copay for non-emergency use of the emergency room.
Analysis: Governor’s Budget Plan Sells Kids Short
California children bear more than their share of the burden of $8.3 billion in cuts in Gov. Brown’s proposed budget, according to a policy analysis from Children Now.
Long-Term Care Crisis Is Now, Report Says
By 2030, the number of Californians 85 and older will rise by 40% and the overall senior population will comprise about 18% of all Californians. That’s the sobering news from a fact sheet released this week by the SCAN Foundation, a not-for-profit organization that tracks long-term care issues.
“There are many changes evolving here in the state, so being able to articulate that we’re in a time of increasing need is important,” said Gretchen Alkema, vice president for policy and communications at SCAN. “We feel there will be increasing needs in the state, especially when we’re seeing a scaling-back for providing those services.”
The higher demand for senior services, particularly from the 85-plus population, coupled with budget cuts to health care programs adds up to a potentially huge problem, Alkema said. “We need to transform our systems of care, and not just for seniors because we know those long-term care needs aren’t created in a vacuum, they’re usually brought on by a number of chronic conditions.”
Smoking In Long-Term Care Facilities Debated
California already prohibits smoking inside hospital buildings, so Assembly member Wilmer Amina Carter (D-Rialto) thought it made good sense to extend that ban to long-term nursing facilities.
The often elderly, frail population at nursing facilities might need more protection from secondhand smoke than most people, Carter said at a Senate Committee on Health meeting yesterday.
“There is no safe level of exposure to tobacco smoke,” Carter said. “One lit cigarette inside a long-term health facility exposes non-smoking workers, non-smoking patients and those who visit these facilities to over 7,000 harmful chemicals, of which over 70 of these chemicals cause cancer.”
Scrutiny of Health Care Training Programs Increasing
The training of health care workers at private schools is coming under increasing scrutiny in California. Legislation, research projects and consumer oversight efforts are looking into the costs of education compared with graduation rates, accreditation claims and graduates’ ability to find jobs.
Bill Aims to Expand Number of Residency Slots
Most of the health care reform expansion effort has focused on the logistics of adding coverage for up to 3 million more Californians, but that’s just the start, according to Senate member Michael Rubio (D-Shafter). Those millions of health insurance cards won’t be worth their weight in plastic if you don’t make sure the state has the providers to take care of all of those people, he said.
“Even if we resolve the issue of health insurance,” Rubio said, “health access still is a significant issue.”
Rubio spoke on the Senate floor last week on behalf of his bill to expand the number of residency slots in California, a plan with the potential to significantly increase the number of providers in the state, he said. Setting up the infrastructure to accept private contributions for residency expansion creates an opportunity to add providers in California without using any more general fund dollars, Rubio said.
Why the ObamaCare ‘Dirty Deals’ Don’t Tarnish the Law
Opponents of the Affordable Care Act are now trumpeting secret White House emails as their latest evidence that the reform law is broken. One author of the law begs to differ.
State Health Officials Intrigued by New Medi-Cal Data
Len Finocchio is a numbers guy, so he’s genuinely excited by a new set of survey data that paints a picture of recipients’ impressions of the Medi-Cal program.
“There is lots of data, lots of it,” said Finocchio, associate director of the Department of Health Care Services. “We will be continuing to mine it for a long time, to get insights about how to make the program better.”
Last week, the California HealthCare Foundation, which publishes California Healthline, released a survey of the attitudes and concerns of Medi-Cal beneficiaries. It has been a relatively long time since a similar survey was completed in 2000, so state health care officials were extremely pleased to get updated information, Finocchio said.
Duals Project Goes to CMS for Approval
It was a big moment for officials in the Department of Health Care Services.
“We are thrilled to be getting this in,” said Jane Ogle, deputy director of DHCS. “It’s a big project. So to get this in, we’re all really excited. This is the result of a year’s planning, a year of planning and work with advocates and stakeholders and within the department. And all of that comes together in this document.”
The project is the Coordinated Care Initiative, also known as the duals demonstration project, and the document is the project’s final plan, which was submitted late last week to CMS.
Creating a Culturally Competent Health Care System
Is California still leading the way toward cultural competence in health care? We asked stakeholders how California legislators, policymakers, educators and business leaders can best prepare the health care system for an increasingly diverse population.