Latest California Healthline Stories
‘No Debate,’ Cleveland Clinic’s Great. But How To Replicate?
At last week’s debate, both President Obama and GOP challenger Mitt Romney agreed on one point: The Cleveland Clinic is a model for U.S. health care. But the men had different visions for how to realize similar reforms.
Could Reform Initiative Affect Health Care?
Proposition 31 on California’s November ballot has some health advocates alarmed. They say it could hinder development of health programs, especially senior care options, and make existing programs more vulnerable to large cuts.
One of the big concerns about the measure, according to Steve Maviglio, a political consultant in Sacramento and former press secretary for Democratic Gov. Gray Davis, is that most people don’t know much about it.
“We haven’t heard a lot about Prop. 31,” Maviglio said. He said there is a lot of uncertainty about the measure, even among many who have studied it.
Study: Nurse Ratio Law Has Mixed Results on Quality of Care
California’s nurse staffing law has had mixed results on quality of care, according to a new study. The California Nurses Association, the driving force behind the 2004 law, said the study’s findings were not sufficient to support the authors’ conclusions.
Legislature Receives Final Plan for Duals Project
This was a big week for the state Department of Health Care Services, which on Monday submitted its final version of the strategic plan for the Coordinated Care Initiative — a project in which the state eventually plans to move on million seniors and disabled “dual eligible” Californians to Medi-Cal managed care plans.
Dual-eligibles are eligible for both the Medicare and Medi-Cal programs. By meshing the two funding sources and patient services, the state plans to improve the quality of care while also saving money.
Initially, the duals demonstration project will start with eight California counties (Alameda, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties) and the approximately 700,000 dual-eligibles in those counties.
Ambitious Transition Plan for Healthy Families
State officials this week submitted a four-phase strategic plan to eventually move 875,000 children from the Healthy Families program into Medi-Cal managed care plans.
Health care advocates have expressed some reservations and concerns about the transition. State officials have said they’re confident they’re ready to meet the deadlines that have been set for it. The new plan hopes to simultaneously improve quality of care for children and save the state money.
It will happen quickly. On Jan. 1, the state plans to launch the first phase of the transition, shifting 415,00 of the Healthy Families kids to a managed care plan.
Why the Future of Health Care May Be on the Line With Prop. 30
If Proposition 30 fails to pass in the upcoming November election, billions of dollars worth of trigger cuts would kick in, cutting education funding drastically in California. But, it turns out, health and social service programs also have a lot riding on this election.
Physicians, Nurse Practitioners at Odds Over New Roles
It’s a time of celebration and indignation for Beth Haney, president of the California Association of Nurse Practitioners.
Last week, Gov. Jerry Brown (D) signed into law a bill that will remove a six-month waiting period for new NP graduates to write prescriptions.
However, earlier last week, the American Academy of Family Physicians came out with a policy paper that raised questions about the wisdom of expanding the scope of practice for nurse practitioners.
Watch Sears and Darden, Not Obama vs. Romney, for Future of Health Care
Sears Holdings and Darden Restaurants are adopting a new direct contribution model for their employees’ health benefits, a change that may prompt other major companies to follow suit.
Governor Nixes Long List of Health Bills
Gov. Jerry Brown (D) vetoed a number of health care bills over the weekend. They ranged from a program designed to improve flu vaccinations among health care workers, to a proposal to define and promote patient-centered medical homes, to a regulation on hospital-nurse staffing ratios.
The governor had a variety of reasons he gave for the different vetoes, but at least one of those explanations didn’t make much sense, according Assembly member Henry Perea (D-Fresno). Perea is the author of AB 1000, a measure designed to make oral chemotherapy more affordable and accessible for Californians.
“While I support the author’s efforts to make oral chemotherapy treatments more affordable for the insured, this bill doesn’t distinguish between health plans and insurers who make these drugs available at a reasonable cost and those who do not,” Brown wrote in his veto message.
Access, Capacity Concerns for CBAS
California’s Community Based Adult Services program officially launches today, the culmination of a long and contentious effort to first eliminate and then replace the Adult Day Health Care program.
There were roughly 36,000 recipients of ADHC services when the governor first proposed eliminating it as a Medi-Cal benefit in January, 2011. After a long budget fight, the Legislature voted to end ADHC in May, 2011, with the proviso that a stripped-down replacement program would take its place. That plan was vetoed by the governor in June 2011, prompting a legal challenge by Disability Rights California. The settlement of that lawsuit in December 2011 led to creation of the new CBAS program.
According to Department of Health Care Services officials, about 80% of former ADHC beneficiaries now can receive CBAS benefits, which mirror ADHC services. The remaining 20% are eligible for enhanced case management services.