Latest California Healthline Stories
Hope Raised by Patient-Centered Medical Home
Robert Reid thinks he has seen the future, and it comes from Washington.
Not D.C. — the state of Washington.
That’s where Reid of Seattle’s Group Health Research Institute has seen the patient-centered medical home in action, and that’s what he was preaching to medical leaders in Sacramento yesterday.
Who Wins if Republicans Repeal Health Reform Law?
The debate over the nation’s health care overhaul has reached its highest pitch in months, but most industry stakeholders are sitting out of Republicans’ fight to repeal the law. The industry’s silence illustrates an emerging consensus: with the exception of a few groups, even former opponents of the overhaul now want the law to stay.
Providers Set To Reap Cash from IT Incentive Program
California has a new interim coordinator for health information technology. Linette Scott stepped in for Jonah Frohlich, who resigned as deputy secretary of health IT at the California Health and Human Services Agency to take a job in the San Francisco law office of Manatt, Phelps & Phillips.
Scott presided over her first stakeholder meeting last week at an opportune time. CMS had just opened up registration for financial incentives for electronic health record implementation.
“This effort is much broader than just an IT project,” Scott said. “This is a way to improve health of all Californians.”
Will Insurance Czar Be Regulating Health Rates?
A bill in the Assembly and an emergency action sought by the Department of Insurance could give the state insurance commissioner a lot more enforcement power over health insurers’ dollars. But is that new power necessary?
Telemedicine in California Becoming Tele-Reality
Telemedicine may seem futuristic, but it’s not. Not anymore.
“The good news is, at CTN [the California Telehealth Network], we have actually activated sites,” CTN Executive Director Eric Brown said. “Which is huge. This is really huge for us.”
Brown said approximately 25 sites have activated their connections since Dec. 1, and that’s just the run-up to a much bigger launch.
Job Growth in California’s Health Care Sector Slowing to a Crawl Amid Ongoing Recession
Deloras Jones of the California Institute for Nursing and Healthcare, Dylan Roby of the UCLA School of Public Health and Neeraj Sood of the University of Southern California spoke with California Healthline about health care job growth.
Broader Enforcement Power for Insurance Commissioner?
A few hours after he was sworn in as the new commissioner of the California Department of Insurance, Dave Jones said he wanted the state to make sure PPO health insurers spend 80% of their revenue on health benefit payouts.
That 80% figure is the new federal mandate, and Jones wants to make it clear to insurers that the state is going to check up on them and enforce that law, according to Janice Rocco, deputy commissioner of health policy for the DOI.
“Historically, the department has reviewed for 70% medical loss ratios in the individual market,” Rocco said. “Now that federal law meets 80% individual standards, we feel it’s important that the federal law be enforced at the state and federal level.”
Program Draws Medical Students to Fresno
An innovative program for third-year medical students is shaking up the structure of medical education and possibly grooming doctors for the areas that need them the most.
Third Time’s the Charm for Single Payer?
The megaphones and what-do-we-want cheers were in full force earlier this week on the steps of the Capitol building. It was all to support passage of a single-payer system in California, which twice already has been passed by the Legislature and vetoed by the governor.
Amanda Foran, an occupational therapist at the California Hospital Medical Center in Los Angeles who attended the rally, said national reform will help ease some of the problems of health care, but doesn’t get to the root of what she sees every day at work.
“As a clinician, I see patients come into the ER all the time because that’s the only way they can see a doctor. And of course, it’s the most expensive.”
New Year, but Same Old Budget Challenges
From coast to coast, governors and state legislators are assuming or returning to office with a common cry: We need to cut Medicaid. Are there new solutions to this old problem?