Latest California Healthline Stories
Forum Examines Specifics of Bending the Cost Curve
A forum organized by a Massachusetts health policy research institute explored ways California policymakers and health care providers can combat the spiraling costs of health care ranging from adhering to prescription drug regimens to avoiding unnecessary hospitalizations.
DHCS Says State Is Ready for Adult Day Care Transition
Advocates for seniors and the disabled filed a motion on Saturday asking a U.S. District Court judge in San Francisco to intervene in some implementation details of the settlement agreement it signed eight months ago with the Department of Health Care Services.
State officials yesterday answered some of the questions about the Oct. 1 implementation of the Community Based Adult Services program.
Some advocates worried about confusion around the launch of the CBAS program since the state is holding training sessions for the CBAS changeover in October for both health plans and physicians.
The Exchange by Any Other Name
Now there are four.
At yesterday’s meeting of the state’s Health Benefit Exchange board, Chris Kelly, the exchange’s senior advisor for marketing and outreach, presented the four finalists in the project to pick a new name for the exchange — the name that will be used to market the exchange’s choices and services.
“We brought forward about 13 names last time [at the Aug. 23 board meeting],” Kelly said, “including Wellquest and, of course, Avocado — that is still a crowd favorite.”
Kelly prefaced his presentation by reiterating that each proposed name includes a marketing package with a unique logo and tagline — “a voice of its own,” as Kelly put it.
California Could Lose $61B in Medicare Pay. Does it Matter?
A new analysis projects the impact of the Affordable Care Act’s Medicare cuts on California: at least $61 billion over a decade. It’s a striking figure — but the effect on patients and providers is still unclear.
Motion Could Delay Implementation
A court motion filed Saturday challenging the state’s implementation of a new program for adult day services raises a number of concerns about how the new legal hurdle may affect timing and appeals in the new Community Based Adult Services program.
One of the main issues revolves around the fate of approximately 2,400 former Medi-Cal beneficiaries of Adult Day Health Care services. Those frail, elderly and disabled people had been denied eligibility to the replacement CBAS program. Many of them had been denied eligibility after earlier being approved for it.
According to Elissa Gershon, attorney for Disability Rights California which filed the motion Saturday in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, there are approximately 2,200 appeals of eligibility still outstanding, and roughly another 200 who have had a hearing but are still awaiting a decision.
October Start for New Adult Day Program Could Be Halted
Disability Rights California on Saturday filed a motion in U.S. District Court to stop the Department of Health Care Services’ implementation of portions of the Community Based Adult Services program, saying the department violated terms of a previous settlement agreement.
The motion noted that a federal court twice prohibited cutbacks to Adult Day Health Care benefits because “the loss or interruption of necessary ADHC services would irreparably harm ADHC recipients and place them at serious risk of institutionalization.”
That led to a December lawsuit settlement agreement that established the CBAS program to replace ADHC services.
Mental Health, Substance Abuse Treatment Changing
New guidelines in the Affordable Care Act and new responsibilities for county governments mean significant changes ahead for mental health care and substance abuse treatment in California.
Uninsured Number Dips — But Why?
Census results released Wednesday show a drop in the number of people without health insurance nationally, from 16.3% of Americans in 2010 down to 15.7% in 2011, about 1.4 million fewer uninsured across the country.
Given the weak economy, that was a welcome development to Kiwon Yoo, policy director of the Insure the Uninsured Project, based in Santa Monica.
“The biggest reason for that is the dependent coverage that kicked in,” Yoo said. “The numbers declined by about 2.2% in that age group, and that’s 3 million people nationally. That’s a big chunk of it.”
Legislative Help for Long-Term Care?
The SCAN Foundation today released results of a survey on long-term care readiness in California. It wasn’t pretty:
• Roughly half of the poll respondents said they will need long-term care for a close family member within the next five years.
• About half of the poll respondents said they cannot afford even one month of nursing home care.
• Almost two-thirds of the registered voters in the poll said they’re worried about being able to afford long-term care.
• A whopping 88% of those polled said legislators should make affordable long-term care a high or moderate priority.
UC-San Diego Program Focuses on Designing Medical Devices
A new master’s degree program at UC-San Diego’s Jacobs School of Engineering is designed to help working engineers meet the evolving demands of one of San Diego’s fastest-growing industries — medical device design and manufacturing.