Latest California Healthline Stories
Should California Follow Mass. Cost-Control Example?
We asked experts and stakeholders if California should be considering something similar to Massachusetts’ new law designed to allow health care costs to grow no faster than the state’s economy.
Essential Benefits, Medical Review Change Passed
The countdown has begun. Only three more voting days till the end of California’s legislative year. The Legislature’s 2012 session ends on Friday, making this a busy week.
A number of health-related bills are among the hundreds of laws passed so far and headed to the governor’s desk (some of them are pending technical concurrence in the house of origin):
David Goodman of Dartmouth Discusses Efforts To Study Care Quality Across Patients’ Lifetimes
David Goodman — professor of pediatrics and health policy at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth and co-director of the Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care — spoke with California Healthline about efforts to study variations in care quality from the beginning to the end of life.
Our Sidneys: Five Policy Studies That Warrant a Close Read
For the second straight summer, “Road to Reform” spotlights five of the most influential — and interesting — studies that were released in recent months. Here’s a look at what the wonks are reading.
One More Shot to Keep Healthy Families
Over the weekend, legislators came up with two new bills designed to keep the Healthy Families program intact. California’s version of the federal Children’s Health Insurance Program is slated for elimination. The 873,000 children in the program are scheduled to be shifted to Medi-Cal managed care plans. Almost half of them — about 415,000 children — are scheduled to begin the transition Jan. 1.
The transition timeline was too rapid for many legislators. The two new bills would halt the transition, for now.
This is the last week the Legislature can act this year. The 2012 session ends Friday.
New Attempt at Rate Regulation on Ballot
Let the battle begin, again.
One of the most contentious health-related bills before the Legislature in the past two years was a proposal to regulate health insurance rates, AB 52 by Assembly member Mike Feuer (D-Los Angeles). After it failed to clear the Legislature in September last year, a consumer rights organization decided to take the baton and make it a state initiative.
Almost a full year later, Consumer Watchdog has officially collected 549,380 signatures and the secretary of state on Thursday verified the measure will be on the November, 2014 ballot. Voters now will decide the rate regulation question.
It also means the rhetoric is likely to get more heated than it did in Sacramento at the height of the rate regulation debate.
Why Basic Health Plan Failed and Why COOPs May Succeed
The legislative demise of the Basic Health Program and the legislative progress of Consumer Operated and Oriented Plans are clear signals of support for California’s Health Benefit Exchange, consolidating the new entity’s power and reach.
A few ideas for a new name — ranging from the expected, traditional options to the less expected, non-traditional — were floated at yesterday’s Health Benefit Exchange board meeting.
The board’s executive director, Peter Lee, also announced yesterday that the federal government just approved the exchange’s Level 1.2 grant request for $196 million. The exchange staff has already started working on the next grant request, a Level 1.3 establishment grant, which will be submitted to federal officials in November, Lee said.
The board had a full slate of issues to handle at yesterday’s meeting — from working out the details for how agents would be paid in SHOP exchanges to decisions about premium aggregation. But the buzz in the room circulated around what name the exchange will have in 2014.
One Stage Down, Many More to Come
Health and Human Services Secretary Diana Dooley summed up the state of health care in California pretty succinctly at Tuesday’s health task force forum:
“With the economy down in California, there are more people needing services,” Dooley said, “and less money to provide it.”
That conundrum is at the heart of the creation of the Let’s Get Healthy California task force, which finished its first stage of discussions Tuesday.
Health for Sale as Retail Clinics Expand in California
The retail clinic sector is experiencing healthy growth in Los Angeles and could grow throughout the state as health care reform comes into play, according to a new study from the RAND Corporation.