Latest California Healthline Stories
Two Yamada Bills Signed into Law
Gov. Jerry Brown (D) yesterday signed a bill to protect seniors in county-run nursing homes during state emergencies. One day earlier, he signed another senior-protection bill, this one to make sure veterans get clearer updates on the cost of their care.
Assembly member Mariko Yamada (D-Davis) authored both bills.
“Our commitment to all issues relating to aging and the long-term care population continues,” Yamada said. “We thank the governor for helping make sure greater transparency is available for veterans, and ensuring that nursing home facilities are included in emergency response plans. And at no cost to the state.”
To Gauge ObamaCare Impact, Ignore CBO and Focus on AQC
Which three-letter acronym actually matters most in health reform this month? Many are focusing on the CBO’s projections — but news about the AQC, a Massachusetts pilot project, could hold the keys to unlocking ObamaCare’s potential.
Timeline Delineates Duals Project Tasks
The state Department of Health Care Services has released a timeline of deadlines and target dates for its Coordinated Care Initiative, also known as the duals demonstration project.
Eventually, the duals project hopes to move about one million Californians dually eligible for Medi-Cal and Medicare benefits into Medi-Cal managed care plans. The idea, state officials have said, is to provide better, more integrated care by pooling the funding sources from two disparate programs. Coordinated care could provide stronger case management, offer needed services and save state and federal dollars.
The pilot program in eight counties, beginning in March, 2013, will serve about 700,000 of the state’s dual eligibles.
DHCS Rejects Judge’s Opinion on Adult Services Eligibility
An administrative law judge from the Department of Social Services issued an opinion that the Department of Health Care Services does not have the legal authority in two cases to deny eligibility for the Community Based Adult Services program. That opinion was rejected in an alternate decision issued Wednesday by DHCS director Toby Douglas.
The appeals process, contained at this point within the state Health and Human Services Agency, is overseen by DSS, which submits its findings to Douglas, who has final word on appeals decisions.
One of the two potential beneficiaries whose coverage was denied by the state provided California Healthline with the 10-page document containing the judge’s ruling and the state’s overruling of it.
Report: Grim Future for U.S. Docs; Outlook Brighter in California
Many physicians in California have a brighter outlook for the future of practicing medicine than the grim predictions in a national report released last week by The Physicians Foundation.
Future of Health IT on Display at Gathering
The future of health care depends on the present of health information technology.
That was the take-home message yesterday, during the first day of a two-day conference on the progress and promise of health IT in California. The gathering is called “Connecting California to Improve Patient Care in 2012: Practical Solutions for Health Information Exchange and Quality Analytics.” That mouthful was nothing compared to the arcane and complex conversation during the first of a two-day conference in Rohnert Park. The conference concludes today.
“We are using data to improve people’s health care,” said Linette Scott, chief medical information officer for the state Department of Health Care Services. Scott said the success of state health care projects, like the duals demonstration project (also known as the Coordinated Care Initiative), for instance, depends on the successful development of information technology.
Moving ‘Almost a Million Children’ to Medi-Cal
The Managed Risk Medical Insurance Board, which oversees the state’s Healthy Families program, yesterday took a long look at the first outline of a plan to facilitate the state-ordered shift of an estimated 873,000 children enrolled in the HF program to Medi-Cal managed care.
The conclusion was, the current time frame to make such a big change is too tight, said Janette Casillas, executive director of MRMIB.
“In this transition, it is not just an administrative process to move almost a million children,” Casillas told the board yesterday. “Whenever a child is disenrolled [in the Healthy Families program], there are seven different IT transactions to make, for example. There are three separate transactions to update meds.”
New Denials, Contentious Appeals Hearings Irk Senior Advocates
The question of who’s eligible for the new Community Based Adult Services program is once again a hot topic as advocates worry that the state might limit eligibility, while state officials insist nothing has changed about their approach.
Task Force Starts with Population Health
When you’re trying to take on reformation of the complex and arcane system of health care in California, where do you even begin?
At population health, apparently.
The state’s recently formed “Let’s Get Healthy California” task force convened yesterday for the first of four scheduled webinars. The meetings are part of the task force’s plan to eventually organize the unruly health care system in California by creating a priority list and action plan for what needs to be done, according to Diana Dooley, Secretary of Health and Human Services.
How Much Will States’ Medicaid Expansions Really Cost?
State officials are wrestling with whether to join the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion, but as part of their evaluation process, many are relying on cost estimates that are not accurate.