Latest California Healthline Stories
Incentives for Public Hospitals a Microcosm of Reform Goals
Want to know how national health care reform might look? Take a look at what California’s public hospitals are doing. They are in the second year of a five-year plan that shares many of the same goals as the Affordable Care Act.
New Online ‘Refor(u)m’ for State Health Issues
State efforts to enact national health care reform have proceeded at different paces — a situation made clear in a new online forum designed to help states implement the Affordable Care Act.
At a recent forum featuring representatives from North Carolina, New York and Virginia, the wide disparity of progress among the states became apparent.
It was part of an effort to get states to talk to each other about implementation of national health care reform, coordinated by a recently launched website.
Med Center Lowers Readmission Rates
Karen Rago of UC-San Francisco had an important task: help lower readmission rates of older heart failure patients. It’s one of the targets for health care reform, and the medical center wanted to see how hard it would be to do it.
Pretty hard, Rago said — at least at first.
“We started with a grant, and the aim was to reduce readmission rates at 30 and at 90 days,” Rago said. “That didn’t look like it was going to happen.”
Lost Battle Over ADHC Turns to One Big Question: What Now?
Most of the 35,000 Californians who use adult day health care services don’t really care about the many political and legal twists and turns ADHC has gone through in the past five months. They’re more worried about what’s going to happen to them — and they’re not alone in that worry.
Public Agency Takes Up Political Hammer
The board of the California Health Benefit Exchange voted last week to oppose a bill that would establish a basic health plan and to urge the lawmakers behind AB 52, which would regulate rate increases by insurers, to exempt the exchange from that law.
The board also voted to direct staff to work with legislators on four other bills that deal with the exchange — including two laws that directly refer to the exchange in their identifying titles.
All of the votes were 3-0, with member Robert Ross absent and chair Diana Dooley abstaining.
Ranking the Reforms at Risk in a Deficit Deal
As the nation’s leaders lurch toward a deal to cut the deficit, lawmakers have floated a range of possible health care cuts. Here’s a list of potential programs and reform initiatives that are most at risk in the current negotiations.
Veto Caps Tough Week for Adult Day Health Care
Today marks the 21st anniversary of the national Americans with Disabilities Act.
That anniversary carries a bit of a sting this year for seniors and the disabled in California, on the heels of yesterday’s veto by Gov. Jerry Brown (D) of a bill that would have created the Keeping Adults Free from Institutions (KAFI) program, which was supposed to take the place of the current adult day health care program.
Today also was the day set aside for the court hearing challenging the elimination of the ADHC program, but a judge last week approved delay of that hearing until Nov. 1.
DHCS Request To Delay ADHC Case Granted
The day in court for adult day health care will have to wait.
A U.S. District Court judge on Friday approved a request by the California Department of Health Care Services to put off the hearing that challenges the department’s elimination of the ADHC program.
The hearing on a suit by Disability Rights California was set for tomorrow. ADHC centers across the state were watching that date to gauge whether or not they’ll be able to remain open much longer. The new hearing is scheduled for Nov. 1, 30 days before the state’s scheduled elimination of the program at roughly 300 ADHC centers across California.
Crisis Creates New Way To Train Family Physicians in Valley
A residency program in Modesto bypasses the hospital as a home base and instead trains family physicians in community health centers. According to one expert, the new approach “makes ‘change’ a positive word in the residency world.”
ADHC Saga About to Take a Pivotal Turn
The state Department of Health Care Services is moving to cancel its July 26 court hearing over the legality of eliminating the ADHC program.
DHCS also sent a letter this week to CMS asking for a three-month extension to the original Sept. 1 elimination date. That request was approved by CMS and that approval is being used as the basis for canceling the upcoming court date, according to Lydia Missaelides of the California Association of Adult Day Services.
On top of all of that, the word in the Dome is Gov. Jerry Brown (D) is set to veto the KAFI program as soon as today, or possibly over the weekend.