Latest California Healthline Stories
New Law Allows Physicians To Move Children From Acute Care
Physicians in California are not allowed to transfer children who are under care of the state and in acute care facilities, even if moving them to a subacute facility would be a better option for them.
Assembly member Holly Mitchell (D-Los Angeles) wanted to change that with AB 667. Yesterday, Gov. Jerry Brown (D) agreed and signed that bill into law.
“AB 667 basically updates state law,” Charles Stewart in Mitchell’s office said. “In a number of cases, when a child [under the state’s care] is in an acute facility, the physician did not have the option to say this child doesn’t need to be in the ICU. Being in the ICU can be very restrictive — it’s harder for family members to visit, it’s very restrictive on the child.”
Relief and Rolled-Up Sleeves for Officials at Healthy Families
Gov. Jerry Brown (D) signed ABX1 21 by Bob Blumenfield (D-Woodland Hills) on Friday, which extends a tax on managed health care organizations.
That money helps fund Healthy Families, a program serving 870,000 children in California. Without passage of that bill, Healthy Families officials were staring at a budget shortfall of $130 million in state general fund dollars — and factoring in the 2-to-1 federal match, that becomes a deficit of $390 million.
That would’ve been 37% of the program’s entire budget, and the state was considering massive enrollment cuts in Healthy Families.
Federal MSSP Waiver Expansion Cut From Transition Plan
In its transition plan for eliminating the adult day health care benefit, the California Department of Health Care Services had been planning to expand the Multipurpose Senior Services Program, a federal waiver program aimed primarily at case management. The state planned to expand that program by 1,000 slots.
Yesterday it abandoned that idea in part because of the long waiting list that currently exists within that program, according to Norman Williams of DHCS. The state couldn’t offer new slots to current ADHC patients, he said, not with 1,400 people already waiting long periods of time to join the MSSP program. So the state will move on without it, Williams said.
“The MSSP was an important consideration, a building block of the transition plan,” Williams said. “But we do believe we have the capacity and the resources to provide services for these people, without the MSSP piece.”
Prescriptions, Lab Results, Clinical Care Data Top Priorities for Cal eConnect
Implementing electronic prescribing in California may prove a whole lot less challenging than instituting electronic transfers of lab results and sharing patient care information across unaffiliated health organizations. But all three goals of a network of health information exchanges in the state are going to take a whole lot more effort and coordination.
That was the message emanating from a conference conducted via webinar and telephone Friday hosted by Cal eConnect, the agency leading promotion and coordination of electronic health records in the state.
Cal eConnect is the state-designated not-for-profit organization charged with disbursing $38.8 million in money from the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act. The act was part of the 2009 economic stimulus package.
New ‘Benefit Corporation’ Status Could Benefit Health Care Companies
Companies that deliver health care services and make products in California should be taking a close look at legislation on the governor’s desk that allows creation of a new type of corporation, one that puts social responsibility over profit maximization and shareholder value.
AB 361, by Assembly member Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael), would create a new category of business, one called a “benefit corporation,” or B corp as it has become more commonly known.
Huffman says that California is an incubator for businesses that emphasize social responsibility and environmental awareness but that those businesses lack legal protections for directors and officers who put the greater good above their fiduciary duty to maximize profits for shareholders.
Legislation Aims To Cut Wait for Prescription Drugs
New legislation designed to make the paper trail for prescription drug authorization simpler and shorter is awaiting signature by Gov. Jerry Brown (D).
While it is expected to have little effect on regular issuance of prescriptions, it likely will speed up the process for patients whose doctors prescribe other specialized medicines that are not covered by a health plan’s formulary.
These include brand-name medicines with generic alternatives, expensive medications, drugs not usually covered but deemed medically necessary by the prescribing physician, and drugs that usually are covered but are being used at a dose higher than normal.
Santa Barbara Allowed To Levy Temporary Tax
Santa Barbara County will be able to increase penalties on drunk driving fines in order to fund emergency services as a result of a new state law that barely escaped veto by Gov. Jerry Brown (D).
In the waning hours of the legislative session last week, Brown issued a letter that criticized the method of generating emergency department revenues, although he stopped just short of blocking the bill that had received wide support in the Assembly and Senate.
AB 412 introduced by Das Williams (D-Santa Barbara) becomes law without Brown’s signature. And Santa Barbara County can on Jan. 1 begin collecting an extra surcharge on tickets issued for driving under the influence offenses. An extra $5 for every $10 of base fines can be assessed as a penalty to fund ED services.
CalHIPSO Still Has ARRA Health IT Money To Spend
More and more primary care providers are ditching their file folders and moving into the era of electronic health records, a trend marked by a milestone achievement in California and highlighted this week in Washington.
“Five or 10 years ago, it was a question of whether or not a provider would adopt electronic patient records; today it’s a question of when they will adopt it,” said Speranza Avram, executive director of the California Health Information Partnership and Services Organization.
Her Oakland-based organization announced last week it has enrolled more than 6,187 health care providers, mainly community health centers and small medical practices, in programs designed to assist transition to EHRs. The programs, funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, pay for consultants in regional extension centers across California to provide medical practices with training in implementing electronic patient record-keeping.
New Location for Patient Advocate and DMHC
The Legislature on Friday approved AB 922 by Bill Monning (D-Carmel), which expands the work of the Office of the Patient Advocate, providing a single source to help people with all of their health insurance questions when major health care reform changes come into play in 2014.
The bill raised some eyebrows with a late amendment, one that moves the Department of Managed Health Care to a different agency.
The question of where the Patient Advocate position would be housed is politically charged. Originally established in the Business, Transportation and Housing agency, with its expanded role in the Affordable Care Act, OPA clearly needed to be more closely allied with a government agency that deals with the health care reform law.
Legislature Passes Healthy Families Money, Mulls DMHC Move
Among the raft of bills that floated through the Legislature in the final days of session were two big health-related ones:
• The Assembly, after trying and failing by one vote to pass ABX1 21 by Bob Blumenfield (D-Woodland Hills), yesterday took up the measure again and this time passed it, 61-9; and
• An Assembly bill, AB 922 by Bill Monning (D-Carmel), is designed to expand and move the Office of the Patient Advocate. It took on an amendment that also moves its parent agency, the Department of Managed Health Care. Those agencies currently reside under the Department of Business, Transportation and Housing.