Latest California Healthline Stories
Fearer Ready To Get To Work on Benefit Exchange Board
Paul Fearer, senior executive vice president and director of human resources for Union Bank in San Francisco, brings a rich background in health care purchasing to the penultimate seat on the California Health Benefit Exchange board. Now he and his three colleagues are waiting for the fifth and final appointee so the board can set policy in motion in preparation for the exchange’s start-up in 2014.
He joins California Health and Human Services Secretary Diana Dooley, former California HHS Secretary Kim Belshé and former Schwarzenegger administration chief of staff Susan Kennedy on the exchange board.
“We may look at different ways to reach solutions, but we are aligned in our mission to achieve affordable, quality and accessible health care,” Fearer said.
California’s Hospital Systems Try To Be Accountable
Three major California health systems are embarking on transformative changes ahead of the federal health law’s major payment reforms. Sutter Health, Sharp HealthCare and Scripps Health all are eyeing a range of new opportunities — and challenges — that lie ahead.
Regional Meetings Focus on Work Force Shortages
By the time the California Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development completes a series of regional focus groups, it should have a good handle on creating a robust health care work force. The 10th meeting is scheduled this week in Ontario.
Regional leaders have been charged with offering suggestions on training, recruiting and retaining quality health care workers, while buttressing the impact of reform.
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is bolstering efforts to increase the work force through a variety of provisions addressing the primary care system.
Mental Health Comes Up $1.4 Billion Short
According to a study just released by National Alliance on Mental Illness, California spent $587 million fewer dollars on mental health services than it did two years ago.
Add in the $861 million in redirection of Prop. 63 funds in the proposed new budget, and you’re looking at a total loss of roughly $1.4 billion in mental health funding. But losses can be dealt with, as long as they’re not perpetual budget drains, according to Pat Ryan, executive director of the California Mental Health Directors Association.
“It’s very scary,” Ryan said. “We have pointed out, the amount of money they’re estimating to pay for services [in the new budget restructuring] is already starting out less than we know it costs to provide those services.”
Concierge Medicine Growing in L.A., Orange Counties
Proponents of concierge medicine compare it to buying a first-class seat instead of economy on airplanes. Critics say new, direct models of payment growing in popularity in Southern California widen the gap between the haves and have-nots.
It Pays To Adopt Electronic Health Records
Providers throughout California are about to get a significant amount of help in establishing their electronic health record systems, according to Raul Ramirez, chief of the state’s Office of Health IT.
“Our hope is to launch the incentive program on April 1,” he said. “We’ve been in contact with CMS (federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services), and we expect feedback any time now.”
If the launch goes as planned, providers could start seeing incentive payments starting in May, Ramirez said.
Exchange Board Could Be Filled Out Next Week
Paul Fearer, the newest board member of the Health Benefit Exchange, will bring a strong and knowledgeable voice to the exchange, according to John Grgurina.
And Grgurina should know. Grgurina was president of PacAdvantage when Fearer was chairman of the board.
“What Paul brings is a tremendous amount of experience,” said Grgurina, CEO of San Francisco Health Plan, a city-run insurer covering more than 50,000 low- and middle-income city residents.
Experts Chart Direction of Health Care in California and Nation
Although it has an enviable position as one of the nation’s leaders in health care policy, California faces the same market forces shaping policy in other states. Experts gathered in Irvine recently to examine how California health trends influence the rest of the country — and vice-versa.
Coordination of Care the Key to New Alzheimer’s Approach
Family caregivers take care of 80% of the Alzheimer’s patients in California — and the state needs to support them if it wants to save money and at the same time handle the burgeoning, aging population here.
That’s the take-home message from a new report out today, according to Debra Cherry, executive vice president of the California Southland chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association.
“The primary message of this plan is that you need to invest in what supports the family, and in that way you save the state money,” Cherry said, adding that cash is saved by keeping Alzheimer’s patients out of nursing homes, emergency rooms and hospital beds. “Family caregivers and community-based care, that’s the key.”