Latest California Healthline Stories
Advocates, Health Plans, State Eyeing ADHC Hearing
The state is moving forward with its plans to move 35,000 people who had been receiving adult day health care through Medi-Cal to other programs. However, the transition could be derailed on Nov. 8 when a judge will consider whether the state’s plan adequately cares for patients.
Access at Issue in Medi-Cal Cuts
You would think providers would be up in arms over having their Medi-Cal reimbursement rates cut — once again.
After all, California had one of the lowest Medicaid provider rates in the nation, even before this recent 10% reduction. But according to Carol Havens, president of the California Academy of Family Physicians, the rate reduction really affects patients, not doctors.
“Providers now, at the current level of reimbursement, have to make a decision about how many Medi-Cal patients they will see,” Havens said. “Since it actually costs them money to see Medi-Cal patients, they have to limit the numbers in their practice. So now, in a practical sense, these cuts will put an increased burden on that decision, and they’ll likely see fewer Medi-Cal patients.”
Telehealth May Be Led by Telederm
April Armstrong thinks the medical specialty that’s perfect for California’s nascent telehealth system is dermatology.
“Dermatology is visual,” according to Armstrong, director of the teledermatology program at UC-Davis Medical Center. “That’s the great thing about it, why it’s so suitable for telehealth, is that it’s a visual field. If the image quality is clear, you can tell a lot.”
Today, the Center for Connected Health Policy is scheduled to release an issue brief Armstrong authored on teledermatology. The brief was funded by the California HealthCare Foundation, which publishes California Healthline.
New Law on Telehealth May Mean Better Care, Easy Access
A new telehealth law in California will institute a series of small regulatory changes that could affect the number of health care providers who can participate in telehealth and the number of patients who might benefit from it.
Medicare ACOs a Boon to Senior Care in State?
Don Crane is pretty happy. He’s president and CEO of the California Association of Physician Groups, and he’s been waiting for quite some time for federal officials to finalize the rules governing establishment of Medicare accountable care organizations.
The final regulations announced by CMS could be big news for California, Crane said.
“I think this is going to have a huge impact on the California health care landscape,” Crane said. “What this means is significantly more penetration of ACOs in the senior market.”
When a Law Loses Its Teeth, Can the Reform Still Bite?
After months of industry criticism, CMS’ accountable care organizations are winning plaudits after the agency made the program less intimidating for participants. Some suggest that will make ACOs less effective tools of reform, too.
778 Assessments a Day To Meet Deadline
The clock is ticking, and it’s a big clock.
When the state eliminated adult day health care as a Medi-Cal benefit, the state Department of Health Care Services announced it would do a complete health risk assessment of all ADHC patients to better determine what their health needs are.
Filling those needs will be a huge chore, but conducting the assessments is big enough all by itself.
Getting Covered Kids To See the Dentist
Dental coverage for children is offered as part of the Healthy Families program, but not all kids who can see the dentist actually go.
Healthy Families, hoping to change that, just received a $100,000 grant to help start a utilization program. The grant was awarded by the DentaQuest Foundation as part of its Oral Health 2014 Initiative, a nationwide effort to reverse oral health disparities in the U.S.
“Our strategy is to create a multi-stakeholder, dental-medical collaboration designed to transform oral health care delivery to more than half a million low-income children in California — with the potential to reach upwards of 900,000 across the state,” according to Ellen Badley, the new deputy director of benefits, quality and monitoring at Healthy Families.
Federal Health IT Activity Heats Up in Q3 2011
There were numerous federal health information technology developments during the third quarter of 2011. For example, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT released its final health IT strategic plan, and President Obama proclaimed a week in September as National Health IT Week.
State Laying Foundation for Duals Conversion
The state’s Department of Health Care Services released a series of draft papers this week, outlining some of the concerns and aims of its planned conversion program, which will eventually offer managed care choices to dual eligibles — those Californians who are eligible to receive both Medi-Cal and Medicare benefits.
The latest paper, released yesterday and expected to be posted on the DHCS website today, looks at the possible scope of that transition and finds it could include many more than the 150,000 people originally estimated for the conversion program.
“There are 370,000 duals in Los Angeles County alone,” according to Peter Harbage of Harbage Consulting, who worked on the papers. “There are another 250,000 in the next four largest counties. The paper opens the conversation on that point, as well as on other key issues.”