Latest California Healthline Stories
The Simple Reason — Maybe? — Why Health Costs Have Slowed Down
Health costs are growing at their slowest level in 50 years. Some say it’s because of new cost-control efforts; others chalk it up to implementation of the Affordable Care Act. But there’s probably an easier explanation: the recession.
Exchange Looks at Outreach, Focus Groups, By-Laws
The Supreme Court decision on the fate of the national health care reform law, expected this week or next, could have a significant impact on the work and purpose of the California Health Benefit Exchange.
But that isn’t slowing the project one bit.
Today, the exchange board meets to discuss some big agenda items: outreach, marketing, insurance coverage assisters and agents, the second phase of its establishment grant and yet another look at its bylaws.
HHS Funds Health Innovations Aimed at Improving Care, Saving Money
HHS on Friday announced 17 new recipients of health care innovation grants in California, the largest of which was a $19 million award for the Pacific Business Group on Health to expand its coordinated care project.
Nationwide, 81 innovation grants were dished out. Last month, HHS issued 26 innovation awards, including four in California. In all, California received 21 of the 107 grants.
“This means a significant expansion of something where we’ve seen good results so far,” said David Lansky, CEO of the Pacific Business Group on Health. PBGH received $19 million from HHS to expand the Intensive Outpatient Care Program in collaboration with the California Quality Collaborative, a network of providers in California.
California Offers HIPAA Security Rule Toolkit
California’s Office of Health Information Integrity is offering a no-cost, online toolkit to help California health care providers navigate the federal rules governing the security of patient information in electronic health records.
Study Estimates High Enrollment for Exchange
As many as 2.1 million Californians will get subsidized health insurance coverage through the state’s new Health Benefit Exchange by 2019, according to a study released yesterday by the UC-Berkeley Labor Center and UCLA Center for Health Policy Research.
Another 1.1 million from the unsubsidized individual health insurance market are expected to join the exchange as well, said UCLA researcher Dylan Roby. That would bring the estimated total to about 3.2 million.
State Under Fire for Adult Service Denials, Appeals
Dana O’Callaghan, a social worker for Americare Adult Day Health Center in San Diego, accompanied a young mentally ill patient to an appeals hearing last week — one of the first of approximately 1,800 scheduled appeals of denial of Medi-Cal eligibility for California’s new Community Based Adult Services program for adult day health care.
O’Callaghan wasn’t prepared for what she saw and heard.
“I expected something informal, but when I got there, the attorneys [for the state] were so meticulous about every little thing, every word,” O’Callaghan said. “They questioned the validity of this document [I had written], they questioned my intent. It was not, let’s hear what you have to say, it was more like grilling you on what you do, the dates of your paperwork, that kind of thing.”
Rate Hikes for Military Health Plan Would Be Felt in San Diego
As part of President Obama’s budget, the Department of Defense proposed rate increases in the health care program for active military members, retirees and their families. TRICARE rate hikes would be widely felt in San Diego, where almost half of California’s military families live.
San Francisco Bay Area Aims To Tackle STIs With No-Cost Home Tests for Young Women
Heidi Bauer of the state Department of Public Health, Victoria Jones of the San Francisco Department of Public Health, Vivian Levy of the San Mateo County Health Department and Freya Spielberg of RTI International spoke with California Healthline about a pilot program to help young women obtain no-cost home tests for sexually transmitted infections.
CMMI: ‘Pork Project’ or Manhattan Project?
Some herald the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation as a transformative reform. Others say it’s a $10 billion slush fund. On the eve of another round of funding awards, here’s a look at both sides.
Health Care Task Force Starts Up
This is not your usual task force, according to Diana Dooley, secretary of the state Health and Human Services department. This one, she said, is less interested in the ideal and more focused on producing real-world results. The idea is to figure out which programs across the state improve health care and keep costs down and then encourage and support them.
Dooley was in Los Angeles yesterday to co-chair the first meeting of the health care task force created last month by Gov. Jerry Brown (D). Dooley said the first gathering could not have gone much better.
“I thought it was energized, and energizing,” she said. “It went a long way toward really substantively addressing a meaningful plan, to see what it would look like for California to be healthier in 10 years than it is today. And how do we make some real changes to improve health, lower cost and reform the delivery system. I thought it was a great start.”