Latest California Healthline Stories
California Physician Groups Vow To Continue Reforming, Regardless
At a meeting with national representatives last week in Washington, D.C., California physician groups said they plan to continue working to improve care coordination for patients no matter what the Supreme Court says in the much-anticipated Affordable Care Act ruling.
Paramedics Could Lighten L.A. County’s EMS Load
Proponents of expanded roles for emergency medical personnel say a goldmine of untapped health care resources in Los Angeles County is ripe for mining. Changes brought on by health care reform could make the transition smoother.
Scrutiny of Health Care Training Programs Increasing
The training of health care workers at private schools is coming under increasing scrutiny in California. Legislation, research projects and consumer oversight efforts are looking into the costs of education compared with graduation rates, accreditation claims and graduates’ ability to find jobs.
Bill Aims to Expand Number of Residency Slots
Most of the health care reform expansion effort has focused on the logistics of adding coverage for up to 3 million more Californians, but that’s just the start, according to Senate member Michael Rubio (D-Shafter). Those millions of health insurance cards won’t be worth their weight in plastic if you don’t make sure the state has the providers to take care of all of those people, he said.
“Even if we resolve the issue of health insurance,” Rubio said, “health access still is a significant issue.”
Rubio spoke on the Senate floor last week on behalf of his bill to expand the number of residency slots in California, a plan with the potential to significantly increase the number of providers in the state, he said. Setting up the infrastructure to accept private contributions for residency expansion creates an opportunity to add providers in California without using any more general fund dollars, Rubio said.
Flu Vaccine Bill Approved by Senate
There’s more than one kind of resistance to the flu virus.
Senate member Lois Wolk (D-Davis) found that out, and Wednesday introduced to the Senate floor a substantially reworked version of her bill, SB 1318, which would require health care facilities to meet a 90% flu vaccine health-worker compliance rate by 2015.
The bill passed on a 23-9 vote. However, that vote came at a price.
Harold Miller of the Network for Regional Healthcare Improvement Discusses Innovation
Harold Miller, president and CEO of the Network for Regional Healthcare Improvement, spoke with California Healthline about the importance of pursuing innovative health care improvement strategies that are tailored to local needs.
Senate Hearing Tackles Flu Vaccination Rate
It’s important to the general public that health care workers receive influenza inoculations, according to Senate member Lois Wolk (D-Davis), who was recently before the Senate Committee on Health to introduce SB 1318, which she hopes will increase the vaccination rate among health care professionals.
The bill would protect “our most vulnerable patients — infants, seniors and those who are immune-compromised,” Wolk said. “It would ensure that health care workers receive the influenza vaccination, or wear a mask during influenza season. It’s a choice: Get vaccinated, or wear the mask. We want to decrease the deaths from influenza, and increase the safety at hospitals.”
The California Nurses’ Association and the Service Employees International Union are against the policy, in part because they see it as singling out people who opt out of getting the vaccine, by making them wear a mask in patient care areas.
Community Rallies To Keep Kern Residency Program on Track
When the biggest hospital in Kern County decided to cut back its family practice residency program, the rural community reacted quickly and loudly, forcing the Bakersfield hospital to reinstate the program to its previous level.
Solution to Physician Shortage May Lie in Mid-Level Practitioners
Ed Hernandez, an optometrist, can see it coming.
The Democrat Senate member from West Covina yesterday helped convene the second hearing in a week to explore the looming shortage of primary care providers in California. The addition of millions of newly insured along with a likely decline in the number of physicians in California is an equation that worries Hernandez. He said the gap is unlikely to be filled in traditional ways.
“Last week we looked at the shortage of providers in California, a shortage that will not lessen,” Hernandez said yesterday at a joint meeting of the Senate Committee on Health and the Senate Committee on Business, Professions and Economic Development.
Trying To Provide Solutions to Patient Access
California is in a bit of a fix, according to Senate member Ed Hernandez (D-West Covina), chair of the Senate Committee on Health.
The state doesn’t have enough physicians and other primary care providers now, according to some estimates. That shortage will become more acute in 2014 when the Affordable Care Act brings up to four million newly insured Californians into the system, looking for providers to care for them.
“2014 is essentially here,” Hernandez said yesterday at a Senate health committee hearing on primary care workforce issues. “We have had a historic piece of legislation pass at the federal level, the most historic health legislation since the Lyndon Johnson administration, when the Medicare Act was passed. But there are a lot of unknowns still, including how to implement it.”