Latest California Healthline Stories
Step Forward for Oral Chemotherapy Bill
The Assembly Committee on Health approved a bill Tuesday that would require health insurers to provide oral chemotherapy therapy to their members with a maximum out-of-pocket $100 co-pay per prescription. Another version of AB 219 by Assembly member Henry Perea (D-Fresno) passed the Legislature last year, but was vetoed by the governor.
“This bill would ensure cancer patients have affordable access to the most appropriate cancer treatment covered by insurers,” Perea said. “When the governor vetoed a similar bill last year, he encouraged me to work with his administration to design a policy that will work for California. AB 219 represents a new strategy to make oral chemotherapy affordable.”
According to Perea, even a fully insured patient can spend $5,000 a month on oral chemotherapy medication, while intravenous treatments are covered by a small co-pay, no matter what the drug costs. So he wants to spread the cost over the entire insured population.
The Assembly Budget Subcommittee on Health and Human Services yesterday approved the settlement over cuts to In-Home Supportive Services. The agreement reduces the severity of the cut from the original 20% proposal to its current 8% cutback.
“While we don’t celebrate any cuts,” said Frank Mecca, executive director of the County Welfare Directors Association of California, “we are in favor of the settlement agreement.”
“Eight is better than 20,” said Holly Mitchell (D-Los Angeles), chair of the subcommittee.
Medi-Cal Cut Could Force Some Rural Hospitals To Close Nursing Units
Medi-Cal providers are anxiously waiting to see if federal courts uphold a 10% reimbursement cut. Some skilled nursing facilities face even deeper cuts that might be enough to put some rural hospitals out of business.
Assembly Bill Would Keep Adult Day Program Going
It was a watershed moment for state officials and senior health advocates in March, 2012 when California launched the Community Based Adult Services (CBAS) program, borne of a lawsuit settlement. It was an effort that calmed political waters and dealt with the 35,000 frail and elderly Californians who had been part of the eliminated program for adult day health services.
Yesterday, the Assembly Committee on Health took up the subject again, in the form of AB 518 by Assembly member Mariko Yamada (D-Davis).
The bill would codify the CBAS program, ensuring that it cannot be dropped when state health officials eventually renew the federal waiver that spawned it.
California’s School-Based Health Centers See Promise, Challenges in the Affordable Care Act
Claire Brindis of UC-San Francisco, Alex Briscoe of the Alameda County Health Care Services Agency, Serena Clayton of the California School Health Centers Association and Zena Harvill of the Native American Health Center spoke with California Healthline about how the Affordable Care Act is affecting school-based health centers in California.
How Much Should We Care About Obama’s Budget?
The president’s new budget contains a slew of health care reforms — but given the slender chance they become law, what are the real ramifications? Several experts weigh in.
How New Exchange May Help Californians Buy Health Care
Q: I keep hearing about something called the health insurance exchange. What is it and how is it supposed to work? A: Think of it as a new mall for health insurance, with discounts available for some shoppers. The “mall,” which is a major piece of Obamacare, is called Covered California. When it opens its literal […]
Physician Assistant Bill Clears First Hurdle
The Senate Committee on Business and Professions approved SB 352 by Sen. Fran Pavley (D-Agoura Hills), a bill designed to allow physician assistants and other providers to oversee work by medical assistants.
“MA’s are only allowed to do basic medical tasks, but if a physician’s not there on-site, then the MA can only do clerical work,” Pavley said. “Under this bill, a nurse practitioner, midwife or physician assistant can supervise them, without a physician being on the premises.”
Pavley made it a point to say the bill doesn’t change what medical assistants are allowed to do, or even what physician assistants or nurse practitioners are allowed to do.
Groups Calling for Pause in Transition
Children’s advocates last week called for a pause in the transition of kids from the Healthy Families program to Medi-Cal managed care. At a legislative hearing Thursday, advocates said the state had promised a relatively seamless transition of 860,000 children to managed care, but that gaps in coverage have already occurred — with the more-difficult phases of the transition yet to come.
The outcry was prompted, in part, when the families of an estimated 207 children who were receiving autism services through the Healthy Families program recently were told their coverage had to be stopped because of the state’s Healthy Families transition.
“From the beginning, we’ve heard assurances that there would be no loss in coverage for children, but we’re seeing it now,” said Serena Kirk, senior policy associate at Children’s Defense Fund California. She said the state’s monitoring effort isn’t working as well as it should be because it didn’t deal with the problems of these 200 families until they’d already been refused services.
Palliative Care Key Part of Berkeley Forum’s Prescription
Heath care organizations in Northern California are in step with a recent report from the Berkeley Forum suggesting that improvements in palliative care could help California save $110 billion over the next decade.