Latest California Healthline Stories
Too Much Focus on Medicare — and not Enough on Medicaid?
The continued focus on how Barack Obama or Mitt Romney would shape the Medicare program has become a major focus of the presidential campaign. It also means that the candidates’ deep, actual differences on Medicaid policy are being overlooked.
Support Fades for Healthy Families
The Legislature never had a chance to hear arguments in favor of reinstating the Healthy Families program. The last day of the legislative session came and went on Friday with no movement on the two bills that would have reversed the planned conversion of nearly 880,000 children from Healthy Families to Medi-Cal managed care plans.
A statement from the California Children’s Health Coverage Coalition — a collection of six children’s advocacy groups in California — said lawmakers missed a chance to restore a successful program and save money for California.
“[The coalition] considers the end of session developments as a huge loss for California children, a missed opportunity to secure the $200 million in badly needed revenues from the Managed Care Organization (MCO) assessment and to delay or stop the pending transition of children from the Healthy Families Program to Medi-Cal,” the statement said.
Homegrown Program Addresses Inland Empire Doc Shortage
A training program through UC-Riverside’s School of Medicine hopes to steer local high school and college students onto paths that will lead them to become doctors in the Inland Empire, the region experiencing the worst shortage of primary care physicians in California.
Health-Related Bills Pass Legislature, Healthy Families in Limbo
The window to save the Healthy Families program is narrowing to a small slit, with just a single day left to pass bills.
Meanwhile, a number of other health-related bills did pass the Legislature yesterday, and are on their way to the governor’s desk.
Today — until midnight tonight — is the last day for legislation to be passed this year. The governor has until the end of September to veto or approve bills.
Time Is Short for Healthy Families Bills
If the two legislative bills to revive Healthy Families get passed by tomorrow night’s deadline, a lot of things are going to have to happen today.
The bills need to be heard in health committee, both committees would need to waive a re-hearing, the bills then must be brought to the floor and passed by both houses. And that’s assuming the bills don’t have to go through appropriations committee.
It all is expected to start today, if and when the Senate bill can be presented to the Assembly Committee on Health. The Assembly would need to waive the rules on publicly noticing meetings before the committee could hear it.
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.