Latest California Healthline Stories
Health 2.0: The Customer Is King
Speakers and attendees at last week’s Health 2.0 conference said that giving patients a voice in health care decisions is a priority. The Health 2.0 space has changed from its beginnings as virtual libraries or data storage software to a focus on dynamic personalization and interconnectivity.
Governor Agrees To Take $6M California Endowment Grant, Signs Many Health Bills
Gov. Brown signed more than a dozen health-related bills late last week, including a measure to accept a $6 million grant to help facilitate Medi-Cal enrollment renewals.
Report: State Exchange Could Do More for Asian/Pacific Islander Population
Covered California had strong enrollment numbers in some parts of the Asian community, but it still has a long way to go in terms of outreach efforts to other Asian groups and Pacific Islander communities, according to a new report.
Data, Oversight Cited as Central Needs To Improve State’s Mental Health Services
Ten years after California voters passed Proposition 63 and created the Mental Health Services Act, the Little Hoover Commission is looking at how well that act is working and what still needs to be done to make it better.
How To Pay for Health for All?
We asked legislators and consumer advocates to weigh in on a proposal to offer subsidized health care coverage to California’s undocumented immigrants and to suggest ways the state could pay for it.
Why One Pioneer ACO Quit the Program — and What It Reveals About the ACA
Ten of Medicare’s 32 Pioneer ACOs now have dropped out of the high-profile program, after San Diego’s Sharp HealthCare informed CMS that it would be leaving the two-year-old pilot.
Medi-Cal Application Backlog Will Be ‘Down Significantly’ Within Six Weeks
Toby Douglas, director of the state Department of Health Care Services, answered a range of Medi-Cal questions at an Assembly hearing yesterday, including when the current backlog of a quarter-million eligibility applications will be processed.
Translations Key To Keeping Coverage
Covered California, the state’s health insurance exchange, has taken a lot of heat for its communication – or lack thereof – to consumers who don’t speak English well. To its credit, the agency has improved in the past year, especially in its Spanish-language offerings and enrollment-related materials. Unfortunately the news isn’t so great when it […]
Governor Signs Telehealth Streamlining
A number of health care bills became law with the governor’s signature, including a telehealth measure and a ban on smoking in family day care homes.
Confidentiality of Health Information in PHRs and Mobile Health Apps in California
A California law that went into effect this year goes further than HIPAA by holding many different types of organizations — including some developers of personal health records and mobile applications — to confidentiality standards and medical data disclosure rules that traditionally have been reserved for health care entities.