Latest California Healthline Stories
State Initiates Expedited Hearing Process for Adult Day Services Appeals
When the Department of Health Care Services launched its new Community Based Adult Services plan at the start of October, more than 2,000 people who had been denied services were still waiting for their eligibility appeal hearings.
Now DHCS officials say almost all of what is now a total of 2,500 eligibility appeals will be heard by Department of Social Services’ administrative law judges by the end of November.
That means roughly 2,000 cases will have been heard in just over two months — almost 200 administrative law hearings a week.
New Plan’s Holistic Approach to Mental Illness in Los Angeles
A new plan to provide mental health and medical coverage in Los Angeles County is taking a holistic approach to dealing with the common “tri-morbidity” — medical problems, mental illness and addiction.
State Makes It Possible to Opt Back In to Managed Adult Day Services
Next week, the state’s new Community Based Adult Services program will be withdrawn from about 5,000 Californians who are eligible for the program because those people chose to opt out of Medi-Cal managed care — which is a requirement for receiving CBAS services.
State officials said some of those 5,000 people, many of whom are eligible for Medicare, may have opted out under false assumptions about Medi-Cal managed care. Many physicians and beneficiaries are under the impression that beneficiaries would have to give up their doctor, or that their doctor would somehow lose out on Medicare payments — and those false assumptions have led to some of those opt-outs, state officials said.
“We are concerned that some people may not be fully aware of the ramifications of their decision to stay in fee-for-service,” said a DHCS press release. “We believe that some of them have received erroneous information that suggested their move to managed care would affect their ability to continue seeing their Medicare primary care physician.”
How to Deal With Remaining Millions Uninsured
Health care experts gathered in Sacramento this week to take on the thorny issue of what to do about the estimated 3.1 million to 4 million Californians who will remain uninsured after five years of implementation of the Affordable Care Act.
The symposium, held on Monday and sponsored by the Insure the Uninsured Project, focused on what to do about the new estimate of uninsured in California.
Last month, the UC-Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education and the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research issued a joint report, “After Millions of Californians Gain Health Coverage under the Affordable Care Act, Who Will Remain Uninsured?”
Debating Health Care Effects of Prop. 31
Proponents of Proposition 31, which calls for restructuring state and county political systems, say it would improve California’s health care system. Health care advocates worry it might have the opposite effect.
Premium Reduction Approved for State High-Risk Coverage
Change is coming for the 5,823 current enrollees in California’s Major Risk Medical Insurance Program, and it’s change they’re going to feel in their pockets.
Premium rates are about to go down to match the rates paid in the similar federal program, the Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan.
The Managed Risk Medical Insurance Board, which oversees the state plan, voted last week to adopt the new premium rate cut that was made possible by a new state law.
What HHS Would Look Like Under President Romney
Paging Bobby Jindal: With Mitt Romney surging in the polls, “Road to Reform” examines what HHS might look like — and who could lead it — under his administration.
Children Going Hungry ‘A Call to Action’
About 125 community leaders gathered in Yolo County last week to launch a new effort to end hunger in that county. The Yolo Food Summit brought together advocates, government workers and other stakeholders to brainstorm answers to the thorny problem of how to make healthy food accessible to people throughout the county.
It’s ironic that Yolo County is primarily an agricultural county and yet more than 17% of its citizens are food insecure. But that’s not the scariest statistic in Yolo County, according to Don Saylor, a Yolo County Supervisor who helped convene the food summit.
“The thing that is quite troubling to me is that 25% of children in Yolo County are food insecure,” Saylor said. “To me, that’s a call to action. When one in four children don’t have access to food in an area where … our economy is based on ag, that’s really troubling. This is a wonderful agricultural community, yet there’s this irony of hunger amidst abundance.”
Commissioner: CO-OPs Important Option for Low-Income Californians
California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones has high hopes for Consumer Owned and Operated Plans (CO-OPs), a new form of health insurance that will be allowed in the state starting Jan. 1.
The not-for-profit, member-governed plans are designed for individuals and small groups, including small businesses.
“One of the most pressing issues facing Californians is the lack of options for obtaining affordable health coverage,” Jones said. “CO-OPs can serve as one option available to nearly one million low-income individuals and their families.”
State Policy Leaders Steer Clear of Politics at Conference
Three weeks before a national election that could prove pivotal for health care reform, policy leaders and state administrators carefully avoided talking politics during three days of the National Academy for State Health Policy’s annual conference.