Latest California Healthline Stories
Committee Votes To Repeal Medi-Cal Cut
Assembly member Luis Alejo (D-Watsonville) got a grand total of seven seconds to speak at Tuesday’s Assembly Committee on Health hearing before he was interrupted.
“AB 900 eliminates the 10% Medi-Cal reimbursement rate cuts for all Medi-Cal providers … ” Alejo started to say.
“Move the bill,” said committee member Roger Hernández (D-West Covina). And before Alejo could speak again: “Second!” said Assembly member V. Manuel Pérez (D-Coachella).
That set the tone at Tuesday’s hearing, which saw a unanimous, bipartisan approval of Alejo’s bill.
Reform May Improve Access to Pediatric Specialties
Pediatric subspecialists in Los Angeles County say health care reform presents a perfect opportunity to rethink and improve the way the health system cares for children with complex, chronic and rare health conditions.
Home Services Workers Balk at Regulation
The Assembly Committee on Human Services yesterday voted to approve a bill designed to register and regulate home health care workers.
“An unknown number of independents operate without any oversight or regulation in California,” said Gary Passmore, who sits on the board of directors at the California Congress of Seniors. “AB 1217 requires both the owners and aides of the organization to pass a background check and meet basic licensure standards. … And it requires all home care aides … to be certified.”
The bill also would publish the names of workers and their occupational data on a public website, a feature that raises privacy concerns for Jennifer Gabales, director of policy, advocacy and public affairs for CAHSAH, the California Association for Health Services at Home.
Birth Control Mandate: The Most Controversial Regulation Ever?
The White House called for comment on its proposed contraception mandate. Hundreds of thousands of responses poured in. Why do so many care so much?
Study: Insurers Are Palliative Care Innovators
Six major health insurers in California are expanding access to palliative care by providing more specialized case management and opening up the hospice benefit beyond its Medicare boundaries, according to a new study expected to be released today.
The study, “A Better Benefit: Health Plans Try New Approaches to End-of-Life Care,” is accompanied by a second paper in today’s scheduled release: “End-of-Life Care in California: You Don’t Always Get What You Want.” The two papers are funded and published by the California HealthCare Foundation, which publishes California Healthline.
The study of the six largest health plans was based on interviews with stakeholders and with health plan directors, as well as reviews of published studies and academic reports, to determine the extent of palliative care alternatives at those plans.
Managing Medi-Cal With Enrollment Up, Spending Down
We asked legislators, state officials and consumer advocates how California should manage Medi-Cal with enrollment going up by millions next year and reimbursements going down perhaps by as much as 10%.
Money to Be Made, Saved with Biosimilars?
A heated fight has developed over legislation to regulate a biotech development that hasn’t yet hit the U.S. market. On Wednesday, the state Senate Committee on Health will take up the topic of biosimilars and the surprisingly robust debate they’ve sparked.
“Legislation like this is a typical brand ploy,” said Brynna Clark, senior director for state affairs at the Generic Pharmaceutical Association, at a Senate Business and Professions committee hearing earlier this month. “It is being pushed by companies who stand to lose $60 billion in patent [expirations]. They don’t have a compelling interest to allow competition to the marketplace.”
That’s the opposition to the bill. Now a proponent:
“Quite frankly, I am shocked at the insensitivity that has been shown to patients during this debate,” said Eve Bukowski, vice president for state government affairs at the California Healthcare Institute, a not-for-profit research and advocacy organization. For cancer patients like Bukowski, who might need biosimilars treatment and who want their physician to be informed about a change in medication, she said, “Are our opponents really suggesting this is too much to ask? … Really?”
Legislature OKs First Special Session Bills
The Assembly and Senate yesterday voted to approve two similar bills that would reform the individual health insurance market and ban pre-existing conditions as a reason for denying health insurance.
They are the first bills from the special session on health care reform to pass legislative floor votes.
The bills now must pass a procedural vote by both houses of origination before heading to the governor’s desk. The governor’s office has expressed support for the bills, so both are expected to be signed into law.
No Diversion of Mental Health Money
A Senate budget subcommittee last week rejected a plan to divert roughly $34 million a year for mental health services to a CalWORKs (California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids) fund.
The California Department of Finance wanted to redistribute realignment money so half the funds currently going to mental health services would instead be shared equally between mental health and CalWORKs starting in 2015-16.
“The realignment funds going into the CalWORKs maintenance of effort subaccount are capped at $1.1 billion, at which point any additional funds, or growth over that amount, are routed to the mental health subaccount,” said Judy Bowman from the Department of Finance, at last week’s Senate Budget Subcommittee for Health and Human Services hearing. “This … would adjust that structure so that those growth funds … would instead be split evenly between the mental health subaccount and the CalWORKs maintenance of effort subaccount.”
Autism, Dental, Mental Health Focus of Transition Concerns
The volume is increasing in a chorus of concern about the transition of Healthy Families children to Medi-Cal managed care. Parents, advocates and state officials are worried about losing access to autism treatment, lower reimbursement for dental services and unusually low numbers of kids getting mental health care.