Latest California Healthline Stories
California First State to Get Funding for Seniors, Disabled Program
Federal health care reform includes a state plan option to provide home- and community-based services designed to keep seniors and persons with disabilities living at and keep them out of institutional care. States taking up that option receive a 6% increase in federal matching payments.
Yesterday, California received federal approval to change its State Plan Amendment, opening the door to begin claiming Community First Choice federal funding.
The change is worth $573 million to California over two years, according to state officials.
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.
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.
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):
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.
New Attempt at Rate Regulation on Ballot
Let the battle begin, again.
One of the most contentious health-related bills before the Legislature in the past two years was a proposal to regulate health insurance rates, AB 52 by Assembly member Mike Feuer (D-Los Angeles). After it failed to clear the Legislature in September last year, a consumer rights organization decided to take the baton and make it a state initiative.
Almost a full year later, Consumer Watchdog has officially collected 549,380 signatures and the secretary of state on Thursday verified the measure will be on the November, 2014 ballot. Voters now will decide the rate regulation question.
It also means the rhetoric is likely to get more heated than it did in Sacramento at the height of the rate regulation debate.
A few ideas for a new name — ranging from the expected, traditional options to the less expected, non-traditional — were floated at yesterday’s Health Benefit Exchange board meeting.
The board’s executive director, Peter Lee, also announced yesterday that the federal government just approved the exchange’s Level 1.2 grant request for $196 million. The exchange staff has already started working on the next grant request, a Level 1.3 establishment grant, which will be submitted to federal officials in November, Lee said.
The board had a full slate of issues to handle at yesterday’s meeting — from working out the details for how agents would be paid in SHOP exchanges to decisions about premium aggregation. But the buzz in the room circulated around what name the exchange will have in 2014.
One Stage Down, Many More to Come
Health and Human Services Secretary Diana Dooley summed up the state of health care in California pretty succinctly at Tuesday’s health task force forum:
“With the economy down in California, there are more people needing services,” Dooley said, “and less money to provide it.”
That conundrum is at the heart of the creation of the Let’s Get Healthy California task force, which finished its first stage of discussions Tuesday.
Senate OKs Oral Chemotherapy Mandate
Health insurers will need to cover oral chemotherapy medication if a bill passed Monday by the Senate is signed by the governor.
Today, the Assembly is expected to concur on AB 1000 by Henry Perea (D-Fresno), a decision that would send the bill to the governor’s desk for a signature.
The mandate on oral chemotherapy coverage would not necessarily apply to coverage within the Health benefits for the exchange, but said he has not yet had conversations with the Benefit Exchange. Bill author Perea said he’s talking with legislators about the possibility of including oral chemotherapy medication among the essential health exchange staff.