Latest California Healthline Stories
What Paul Ryan’s Reforms Would Mean for California
Mitt Romney’s running mate has authored several budget proposals that would transform Medicare and Medicaid. How would Ryan’s changes affect the Golden State, and how do they compare to the Affordable Care Act’s reforms?
Will Basic Health Program Hurt, Help Exchange?
An analysis of a proposed Basic Health Program and its impact on the Health Benefit Exchange offers a mixed bag of pros and cons for exchange leaders and legislators.
The nascent Basic Health Program, if passed by the Legislature, would target a large percentage of possible exchange participants. So the question lawmakers have been wrestling with is: Would that be a good or a bad thing for the exchange, and for Californians?
That’s the question tackled by the exchange itself. On Monday, it released an independent analysis by the UC-Berkeley Labor Center and the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, which was commissioned by the exchange board.
Ombudsman, Immunization Bills Up for Floor Vote
Dozens of health-related bills passed through committee last week, setting up pending floor votes starting this week.
The last hurdle for many bills is the appropriations committee of each house. Those committees ran at high speed last week, churning out approvals for hundreds of bills.
The Legislature has until the end of August to vote on all bills.
Some of the health-related bills that cleared committee last week:
Designing a New Tier of Dental Professional in California
The California Legislature this month will consider a bill that could set the stage for a new tier of oral health care provider — people less educated than dentists but with enough training to perform some dental procedures. We asked stakeholders and experts how the state should proceed.
Including PACE in Dual Eligible Options
Legislators are about to weigh in on one detail of the state’s dual-eligible pilot program known as the Coordinated Care Initiative: An Assembly bill calling for the inclusion of a popular program for Californians at-risk of nursing home care is up for a vote on the Senate floor.
AB 2206 by Toni Atkins (D-San Diego) would require the Department of Health Care Services to include PACE — the Program of All-Inclusive Care For The Elderly — as one of the alternatives to Medi-Cal managed care in the eight counties where the CCI pilot is starting.
The bill cleared its last committee obstacle, the Senate Committee on Appropriations on Monday, on a 7-0 vote. It has now been introduced on the Senate floor and a floor vote on it is expected soon.
Nearing Consensus on Dense Tissue Bill
In case you missed it, yesterday was the day to ask people if they’re dense. The Legislature last session officially approved Aug. 8 as Are You Dense Day. Not surprisingly, the occasion yesterday marked the reintroduction of a bill that would notify women if their dense breast tissue might interfere with mammogram results.
SB 1538 by Joseph Simitian (D-Palo Alto) has passed the Legislature before despite opposition from provider groups. Last year the governor vetoed it.
“Dense breast tissue can appear white in a mammogram, and cancer can appear white in a mammogram,” Simitian said at yesterday’s Assembly Committee for Appropriations hearing.
Standards Open Exchange Doors for Qualified Health Plans
Insurers, often overlooked in the discussion about who benefits from health care reform, came one step closer to participation and potential profit when the California Health Benefit Exchange released its 263-page definition of a qualified health plan.
California’s LIHP a Big Success
The Low Income Health Program, launched 20 months ago, already has more than 400,000 Californians signed up. Health care experts gathered in Sacramento yesterday to discuss one of the successes in California’s health reform effort.
“We hear about a lot of issues people have, but the issue that rises to the top is the LIHP,” said Agnes Lee, health policy advisor to the Assembly speaker’s office.
“Among the doom and gloom of the state budget, there is a bright spot out there. LIHP is one of those rare examples of an innovative, forward-thinking program … and this is something the nation is definitely looking at, as something significant,” Lee said at yesterday’s conference, “Low Income Health Program: Evolution,” sponsored by the Blue Shield of California Foundation.
Mass. Panic: Did State Wait Too Long To Try Cost Control?
Experts are cautiously optimistic that a new Massachusetts law will be a much-anticipated cure for the state’s rising health spending. But others say that the state’s new cost controls — which could be a model for the nation — aren’t the right prescription for reform.
Appropriations Committee OKs Oral Chemo Bill
The Senate Committee on Appropriations yesterday approved AB 1000 by Henry Perea (D-Fresno), which requires insurers to cover oral chemotherapy medication.
“It’s a big day for cancer patients in California,” Assembly member Perea said. “We’ve been working on this since the beginning of last year, and it’s been a hard fight, the insurance companies have come out firing at it.”
Overall, it was a busy day for the Appropriations committee and the Legislature, which returned from summer recess yesterday. The current session only lasts for the next few weeks, before going on final recess — so the legislative docket will be full this month. The Legislature has until Aug. 31 to pass all bills for the year.