Latest California Healthline Stories
‘Visionary’ Pilot Targets Palliative Care
Instead of simply extending hospice services to palliative patients, a rural pilot program is using telemedicine and team training in a different approach.
Special Session Allows an End-Around; Tobacco Bills Avoid G.O. Committee
In an unusual move, legislative leaders moved tobacco regulation proposals to the California Legislature’s special session on health, circumventing the Assembly Committee on Governmental Organization that had scuttled two of them.
Children’s Services May Get Extra Year Before Move to Managed Care Starts
The California Senate Committee on Health approved a bill calling for a one-year delay in the plan to move Medi-Cal children with rare and complicated diseases into managed care plans.
Two Tobacco Bills Go In, None Remain
Legislation to regulate electronic cigarettes and a second bill to change the age limit for tobacco buyers failed to move forward yesterday in the Assembly Committee on Governmental Organization.
E-Cigarette Bill’s Next Stop: Committee Known for Killing Tobacco Legislation
UC-San Francisco researchers say the California Assembly’s relatively obscure Committee on Governmental Organization has a history of severely amending or holding anti-tobacco legislation.
State’s Rate Review Shows Fewer Dental Providers Take Medi-Cal Patients
The number of California dentists providing care through Medi-Cal has fallen by more than 14% since 2008. With the concurrent large increase in Medi-Cal dental coverage, advocates see an access issue looming.
Special Session on Health Spending Opens
The California Senate took up the task of finding new sources for $1.3 billion in health spending — including the big-ticket item, trying to replace a vanishing tax on managed care organizations — in the first hearing of the legislative special session on health care.
Brown’s Shift Ends Current Vaccine Debate
Gov. Brown’s subtle shift in position on vaccination exemptions puts an exclamation point on the end of a long and divisive chapter in the argument over immunizing California school children.
Vaccine Requirement Goes to Governor
The full Legislature has passed a bill to eliminate the personal belief exemption for school children’s immunizations. The legislation still faces one more hurdle: the governor.
Medi-Cal Mental Health Waiver Approved
Integration of physical and mental health in the Medi-Cal program got a boost from federal approval of a five-year extension of the specialty mental health services waiver.