Latest California Healthline Stories
Closed ADHC Centers Make State’s Exempt List
The state Department of Health Care Services recently released a list of 64 adult day health care centers among roughly 300 in the state that will be exempt from the recently approved 10% reduction in Medi-Cal reimbursements. Those centers will be not be charged retroactively to June as other proividers will be, nor will they be subject to the 10% cut going forward because they serve a mostly rural population that the federal government wants to make sure gets access to care.
“These are the centers that the state feels are critical to maintaining access, in order to follow federal law,” according to Norman Williams of DHCS.
But 13 of the 64 centers on the exempt list have already closed, some of them last year.
Healthy San Francisco’s Lessons for National Health Reform
It has an employer mandate. It has improved access to care. It has survived a Supreme Court challenge. So, why aren’t national health policy leaders paying more attention to Healthy San Francisco?
More Employers Turn to Wellness Incentive Programs To Trim Rising Health Care Costs
Tom Hubbard of the New England Healthcare Institute, Steven Noeldner of Mercer Health & Benefits and Joe Woods of HumanaVitality spoke with California Healthline about the growing popularity of employee wellness incentive programs.
Settlement Expected in ADHC Lawsuit
Disability Rights California is close to settling its adult day health care lawsuit against the California Department of Health Care Services, according to a joint release from the two parties.
Today’s scheduled federal court date has been moved to Thursday, by mutual agreement. But according to the joint statement, the court date may not be necessary.
“This brief court date postponement is necessary to enable the parties to finalize a settlement, the details of which will be available on Thursday,” the release said.
Judge About To Rule on ADHC Issues
Tomorrow, a federal judge is scheduled to hear the long-delayed court case challenging the state’s adult day health care transition plan.
Both sides are trying to hash out a compromise settlement. Representatives from Disability Rights California, which filed the suit, and the state Department of Health Care Services met four days last week and may talk again today in an attempt to avoid the all-or-nothing judicial decision.
The state is due to eliminate ADHC as a Medi-Cal benefit on Dec. 1. The lawsuit challenges the efficacy of the transition plan proposed by DHCS to provide necessary care for 35,000 ADHC beneficiaries.
Data Could Be King in Reformed Health Care System
The unfettered distribution of health information could mean better, more timely care and could be invaluable for public health efforts. But in California’s complex and multitiered health system, that’s easier desired than done.
Senate Committee Takes Aim at Long-Term Care
The numbers are scary, according to policy experts and legislators at a Senate Subcommittee on Aging and Long-Term Care meeting yesterday:
• The cost of care in a nursing home in California is approximately $6,000 a month, and the cost of part-time, in-home care is roughly $1,700 a month, according to state officials.
• Both those numbers are expected to double in less than 20 years to $12,000 a month for nursing home care and $3,400 a month for in-home help, according to committee Chair Elaine Alquist (D-Santa Clara).
• California has more than four million seniors right now. That figure is expected to more than double to 8.8 million by 2030, according to Steven Wallace of the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research.
• About one-third of the respondents in a UCLA survey say they couldn’t afford one month of nursing home care, Wallace said.
Health Insurance Rate Regulation May Be On November Ballot
The contentious issue of regulating California’s health care insurance industry is back.
After AB 52 by Mike Feuer (D-Los Angeles) and Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael) was shelved at the end of the last legislative session, that looked like the final word on the prospect of regulating health insurance rates.
Yesterday, Consumer Watchdog filed paperwork to take health insurance rate regulation to the voters.
Spotlight on New PHR Model Privacy Notice
To help address consumer privacy concerns, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology has released a Personal Health Record Model Privacy Notice that allows providers of Web-based PHRs to inform consumers about their data sharing and privacy and security policies.
Stakeholders Map Out Next Tasks for HIE
The health information exchange revolution is under way in California.
“There is tremendous enthusiasm across the state for what’s happening in HIE,” according to David Lansky of the Pacific Business Group on Health, who spoke at yesterday’s Health Information Exchange Stakeholder Summit 2011 in Sacramento.
“We represent large purchasers of health insurance, so in a way it’s odd that we’re so involved in this,” Lansky said. “But we feel HIE is a critical, foundational support tool for transforming the health care delivery system.” The health care reform effort aims to make health care affordable and high-quality, he said, “And we can’t make it succeed without this project.”