Latest California Healthline Stories
How Wal-Mart May Have Just Changed the Game on Health Care
Wal-Mart last week announced a new bundled payment plan with six leading hospitals, which was immediately overshadowed by the presidential race. But the groundbreaking plan — the latest major health care development in the private sector in recent weeks — holds tremendous potential to change U.S. health care.
Study: Nurse Ratio Law Has Mixed Results on Quality of Care
California’s nurse staffing law has had mixed results on quality of care, according to a new study. The California Nurses Association, the driving force behind the 2004 law, said the study’s findings were not sufficient to support the authors’ conclusions.
Physicians, Nurse Practitioners at Odds Over New Roles
It’s a time of celebration and indignation for Beth Haney, president of the California Association of Nurse Practitioners.
Last week, Gov. Jerry Brown (D) signed into law a bill that will remove a six-month waiting period for new NP graduates to write prescriptions.
However, earlier last week, the American Academy of Family Physicians came out with a policy paper that raised questions about the wisdom of expanding the scope of practice for nurse practitioners.
UC-San Diego Program Focuses on Designing Medical Devices
A new master’s degree program at UC-San Diego’s Jacobs School of Engineering is designed to help working engineers meet the evolving demands of one of San Diego’s fastest-growing industries — medical device design and manufacturing.
Primary Care Direct Model: ‘Neither Insurance nor Health Plan’
Accessible, high-quality primary care is a mantra of the Affordable Care Act, which promotes the development of patient-centered medical homes and accountable care organizations. A new direct primary care model attempting to deliver all of those things is being vetted in California, albeit slowly.
Homegrown Program Addresses Inland Empire Doc Shortage
A training program through UC-Riverside’s School of Medicine hopes to steer local high school and college students onto paths that will lead them to become doctors in the Inland Empire, the region experiencing the worst shortage of primary care physicians in California.
Health for Sale as Retail Clinics Expand in California
The retail clinic sector is experiencing healthy growth in Los Angeles and could grow throughout the state as health care reform comes into play, according to a new study from the RAND Corporation.
Outsourcing May Grow as Health System Evolves
The health care industry, no stranger to outsourcing, may be looking for outside help more often and with a wider lens as the health care delivery system evolves.
Access, Clinic Finances, ED Overuse All Major Concerns for CMA
With health care reform and the state’s cutbacks and reorganization of its health care system, the practice of medicine in California is about to undergo major changes. California Medical Association officials have serious concerns about some of those changes.
“Yes, we are in a budget crunch, and yes, money is tight,” said Doug Brosnan, an emergency department physician and a member of the CMA’s board of trustees. “But there is suffering. Patients are suffering because they lack access to basic services.”
Brosnan was part of a group of CMA officials who met with reporters on Friday in Sacramento to talk about California’s recent spate of budget cuts to health programs and the outlook for reform after the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold most of the Affordable Care Act. CMA officials said they are concerned about the state’s efforts to reorganize existing services — such as the duals demonstration project, or the shift of 873,000 children from the Healthy Families program to Medi-Cal managed care.
Reform Talk Moving From Rhetoric to Bottom Line in Business Community
A new report based on a statewide “listening tour” indicates small business owners in the state are eager to move beyond political and legal wrangling and start figuring out what health reform will mean for the bottom line.