Latest California Healthline Stories
Physicians Wary — or Simply Unaware — of ACA Loophole
A little-known Affordable Care Act provision could stick physicians with patients’ treatment bills. Experts warn that doctors could avoid state health insurance exchanges as a result, but perhaps even more troublesome is the number of doctors who are unaware of the loophole.
Medicare And The New Health Law: How It Affects You
Q: I’m a Medicare recipient. How are people like me affected by Obamacare? A: This is no small question. We’re talking more than 50 million Americans and a program that spends more than $500 billion a year. Medicare is the federal health insurance program for people 65 and over, and for people under 65 who have […]
Budget Process Latest Way to Reverse Cuts
Thousands of providers, patients, health care professionals and other protesters are expected to gather today outside the Capitol Building to support the idea of reversing a 10% Medi-Cal provider rate cut. Organizers say it will be the largest health care protest in Sacramento history.
“We have people hopping on buses in Oceanside at 4 in the morning to get here,” said Molly Weedn, director of media relations for the California Medical Association. “People are coming from all over the state, and we’ve seen support from both sides in the Legislature. All of this [support] shows that the public doesn’t want Medi-Cal to be cut, so that’s why we’re doing this.”
It has been a tough couple of weeks for proponents of reversing the rate cut made in 2011 and not yet implemented because of court battles.
Assembly Takes Up Health Care ‘Loophole’
The Assembly this week is expected to debate a bill that would penalize large employers who reduce workers’ hours or wages in an attempt to move those employees off company-sponsored health care and into Medi-Cal coverage.
“We want to close that loophole that allows some of the largest and most profitable businesses in California to skirt their responsibility under the Affordable Care Act,” said Assembly member Jimmy Gomez (D-Los Angeles), author of AB 880.
Some large employers, he said, want to lower wages or hours of employees so those workers would earn a low-enough wage to become eligible for Medi-Cal, “dumping them onto the backs of the taxpayers,” Gomez said.
Agricultural Giant Takes Lead in Keeping Workers Healthy
Paramount Agribusinesses, a large fruit and nut grower in the Central Valley, offers no-cost primary health care to its employees and their families in an effort to increase productivity and improve the health of workers.
Health Insurers Owed $271 Million
State officials this week said the Healthy Families program owes $271 million in services already provided by its network of 20 health care insurers and the program needs legislative help to fix the problem.
Healthy Families’ overall shortfall is projected to be $366 million for the year, a deficit caused by expiration of the managed care organization tax in December. Last week, the Senate budget subcommittee on Health and Human Services delayed a vote on the MCO tax.
“The Legislature failed to extend the MCO tax, therefore MRMIB did not have sufficient cash to pay for the Healthy Families program invoices,” said Tony Lee, deputy director for administration at the Managed Risk Medical Insurance Board, which oversees the Healthy Families program. Lee spoke Wednesday at the monthly MRMIB board meeting.
Plan Proposed to Cover Autistic Children
A Senate subcommittee last week proposed a $50 million solution to temporarily address the lack of coverage of a type of autism treatment under Medi-Cal — a gap in care that recently affected hundreds of Healthy Families children when the state moved them to Medi-Cal managed care plans.
The new proposal would appropriate $50 million to make sure Medi-Cal children with autism are able to receive applied behavioral analysis treatment — known as ABA therapy — through the end of 2013. The assumption is that ABA therapy will be available as an essential health benefit under the Affordable Care Act starting in 2014.
“Clearly this item is to bridge a gap of service,” said Sen. Bill Monning (D-Monterey), chair of the Senate Budget Subcommittee on Health and Human Services, at a hearing last week.
How Do California Small Business Owners Feel About ACA?
In the wake of a Gallup poll showing that almost half of the country’s small business owners predict the Affordable Care Act will be bad for business, we asked stakeholders to assess the mood in California. The new state health exchange is scheduled to announce insurers and premiums for the “SHOP” small business exchange early next month.
School Nurses Case to Supreme Court
The California Supreme Court today will hear oral arguments about the safety and well-being of schoolchildren with diabetes. The case centers on school nurses, but nursing leaders say it could set precedent for the practice of nursing in California.
Cash-strapped school districts across the state have laid off school nurses, creating a dilemma for diabetic children who need insulin shots during school hours.
The state has argued that non-medical personnel can administer the shots. State officials say requiring nurses to do the job endangers children’s ready access to insulin injections and puts their health at risk.
Low Costs and Narrow Networks: Inside Covered California
Why are some top insurers sitting out — and several top hospitals being pushed out — of the Golden State’s health insurance exchange? Here’s a look at the payers and providers that won’t be participating next year, and what their absences mean.