Latest California Healthline Stories
Assessing the First Year of CMS’ New Innovation Center
In a report released earlier this month — “One Year of Innovation: Taking Action to Improve Care and Reduce Costs” — the CMS Innovation Center summarizes what it’s been up to in its first year of existence: 16 initiatives involving more than 50,000 health care providers in all 50 states.
Adult Day Care Transition Gets Another Month
The state’s move on Friday to shift the transition date for Adult Day Health Care elimination by a month was borne of a request by CMS, according to officials from the Department of Health Care Services.
Advocates say the delay may be due to the scattered nature of the state’s transition so far.
“It’s been a royal mess,” Corinne Jan of the Family Bridges ADHC in Oakland said. “Lots of duplications on the lists. Some people got a notice they were eligible [for the alternate program], then another saying they’re not. Lots of confusion.”
More Uninsured Could Put Pressure on State
A UCLA Center for Health Policy Research report showed that 670,000 Californians lost employer-based health insurance in 2008 and 2009. That is a far cry from the earlier estimate of 2 million newly uninsured in the state. But what’s interesting about the new number, according to the report’s lead author Shana Lavarreda, is that it indicates that a new class of uninsured has been rising.
“The uninsured here is less and less an undocumented [worker] problem, and now it’s more of a Main Street problem,” Lavarreda said.
A majority — if not all — of those working-age Californians who lost coverage over that two-year period could have been considered residents of “Main Street.”
Polarization Evident at National Health Policy Conference
Marked differences in how policymakers and politicians see health care reform were clearly displayed this week at the annual National Health Policy Conference in Washington, D.C. Most participants found one area of agreement: More research and more data will help the system evolve.
Can Health Equity Be a Moneymaker?
Sometimes the right thing might also be the financially beneficial thing.
Physician groups are gathering today in Sacramento for a conference on disparities in health care related to race, language and geography. This time, the debate is not just about the moral imperative to promote equity in health care, but also about the clinical and financial impetus to make that move.
“The thing that has changed, as more people are brought into systems of care with accountability, health organizations are going to be looking at avoidable cost as well as avoidable risk,” according to Wells Shoemaker, medical director of the California Association of Physician Groups, which organized the conference.”It’s sort of the low-hanging fruit when you’re looking for avoidable costs.”
Sharp’s Pioneering ACO May Raise Bar in San Diego
Sharp HealthCare’s selection as one of six California organizations to participate in the federal government’s Pioneer Accountable Care Organization pilot program may have an impact on how care is delivered thorughtout San Diego County.
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Can Regional Planning be a Health Issue?
Earlier this week, Assembly member Bill Monning (D-Carmel) made a memorable appearance at a Capitol Building briefing on the health care needs and opportunities for minorities in California.
Monning held up a bright yellow plastic barrel-shaped mug by its thick handle — it was almost a foot tall and looked like it weighed a couple of pounds.
“On the way up here, I went into an AM/PM [market], and saw this thing,” Monning said, hefting the giant mug with the Too Much Good Stuff logo on it. “If you bought one of these, you’d get a free soda. They’d fill this thing up for you.”
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.
Making a Place for Small Businesses in Exchanges
Health insurance exchanges for small businesses are set to go online in 2014, alongside state-based exchanges for the individual market. Recent research shows that the success of the so-called Small-Business Health Options Program will be based on whether it can offer more plan choices and contain costs.
Getting a Head Start on Medi-Cal Expansion
For a program no one’s really heard of, this one is pretty successful.
Counties started enrolling people into the Low-Income Health Program in July 2011, and four months later (at the most recent count in November) about 260,000 Californians were enrolled in it, according to Linda Leu, a health care policy analyst with Health Access California.
“It is a really great opportunity for those who are low-income, and who have been left out of programs like Medicaid [or, in California, Medi-Cal],” Leu said.
And with an acronym like LIHP, the perfect time to publicize the program is on Valentine’s Day, she said.