Latest California Healthline Stories
Health Care Team Hits Ground Running
Long before today’s inauguration of Jerry Brown, the new governor’s interest in health care policy has been clear.
He appointed a new Secretary of Health and Human Services almost a month ago, back on Dec. 7, naming Diana Dooley for the job. Dooley also will serve on the new and powerful Health Benefits Exchange Board, along with two members appointed last week by outgoing Governor Schwarzenegger — including the woman Dooley replaced at HHS, Kim Belshé.
According to Dooley, there has been a high level of cooperation between the two administrations on health care reform and policy.
Is California Ready for Health Care Profit Sharing?
If value-based purchasing of health care spreads as many predict it will, would a logical next step be to reward consumers for choosing a low-priced alternative by sharing some of the profit? We asked insurers, consumer advocates, employers and employer groups to weigh in.
The first thing to know is AB 39 by Jim Beall (D-San Jose) is really AB 3632.
The new bill, to be heard when the Legislature goes back to work Jan. 3, was written to replace money appropriated this year by the old bill (AB 3632), which was vetoed by Governor Schwarzenegger and his blue pencil at the end of the last session.
That’s the simple part. Explaining just what that money is for, that’s a little tougher.
Driver’s License Numbers Among Lost Records
The California Department of Public Health has never had the kind of loss of medical records that it had yesterday, according to Kevin Reilly, Chief Deputy for Policy and Programs at CDPH.
“We’ve had much smaller instances where a laptop was stolen,” Reilly said. “But nothing like this.”
A magnetic tape was mailed to the Capitol from West Covina (near Los Angeles), but when it arrived in Sacramento, it was just an empty envelope.
New State Health Secretary: ‘I Do Believe I Can Make a Difference’
Diana Dooley, who grew up in a small town in the Central Valley, is about to become California’s central health policy official at a time when the state’s health care services will be changing dramatically.
Dooley Hopeful, Realistic on Health Care Changes
California’s recently appointed secretary of Health and Human Services, Diana Dooley, sat down with us this week to talk about the present and future of health care in California. The full story and interview will appear Thursday in California Healthline’s Feature section.
Dooley knows this is a pivotal time in California’s history in terms of health care policy. As the first in the nation to start a health benefits exchange as mandated under the health reform law, California is poised not only to revamp its own complicated and arcane health care system, but also possibly to influence the way the rest of the nation approaches health reform.
But how all of that will play out over the next three or four years is not the only thing on the new secretary’s plate.
Looking Back, Heading Forward: A Checkpoint on the Road to Reform
A year that began with unprecedented health reforms also featured unpredictable political twists and still unanswered questions over policy. As 2010 draws to a close, experts look back on the path to implementing the federal health law and what’s been tabled for next year.
State Braces for Shortage of Care Providers as Elderly Population Continues To Grow
Assembly member Mariko Yamada, René Seidel and Erin Westphal of the SCAN Foundation, Michelle Nevins of the Del Oro Caregiver Resource Center and Cheryl Phillips of On Lok Lifeways spoke with California Healthline about eldercare issues.
Integrated Care at Heart of Health Reform?
As pressure ramps up to reduce health care costs and increase quality, there is a more pressing need for physicians and hospitals to work collaboratively. That was the word from Laura Jacobs of the Camden Group, who presented the core ideas at a recent briefing sponsored by the California HealthCare Foundation, which publishes California Healthline.
“The Affordable Care Act has certainly been an accelerator for the trend we’ve seen in physician-hospital integration,” Jacobs said. “Payment reform, which is an inherent part of the ACA, is one of the things that’s driving this acceleration, and in some ways modification, of the ways physicians and hospitals are integrated.”
In the recent past, she said, physicians had independent practices, and hospitals were concerned with operating their facilities. But with the introduction of managed care, physicians banded into group practices as a way to share risk, she said. Those practices, and the HMOs they dealt with, created a different relationship with hospitals.
Putting Prime Interest in Primary Care
Kelly Pfeifer, who recently took over as the medical director for the San Francisco Health Plan, knows the problems of medical economics all too well.
“We’ve been spending lots of money for health care and not getting a lot for it,” Pfeifer said at a forum in Sacramento put on by the Center for Health Improvement. “We’ve been paying for volume, not quality, and that’s what we get.”
Pfeifer also said she knows a few solutions for medicine’s troubles. “I do have hope that we can get out of this mess,” she said. “The answer is to invest in primary care.” Pfeifer had several examples of primary care innovations that have shown promise.