Latest California Healthline Stories
Austerity Won’t Help Physician Shortage, Experts Predict
Cutbacks in Medicare and Medicaid could make it more difficult to deal with a physician shortage in California that threatens to become more severe as millions of newly insured people join the reformed health care system. California groups are lobbying to streamline and subsidize the training of new primary care doctors.
Getting Business Involved in Health Discussion
Big decisions are being made in health care, many of them affecting California businesses, but the business community won’t have much say in those decisions if leaders don’t step up and participate in defining the future of the health care landscape.
That’s one of the points in a report due out today from the Bay Area Council. The report, “Road Map to a High Value Health System,” analyzes the sources of rising health care costs in California and outlines choices to lower those costs.
“The broader business community and organizations representing the business community have run the gamut from hostile to disengaged,” according to report author Micah Weinberg. “Our message is, if we don’t participate in this process, we’re going to get something we don’t like. So we wanted to make sure businesses get involved.”
Health Care Reform for Small Businesses
The number one key to success for small businesses in the state’s Health Benefit Exchange is choice, according to several presenters at a panel discussion last week in Sacramento.
“You have to have choice, that’s the big thing,” Bill Wehrle of Kaiser Permanente said. “If you don’t have choice, people won’t sign up.”
Wehrle was part of a forum addressing the needs of small businesses in California, and what the state’s exchange needs to do to woo both small-business owners and their employees.
UC-Riverside, UC-Merced Turn to New Models for Med Schools
In response to state budget cuts and emerging trends in medical education, UC-Riverside and UC-Merced are seeking new ways to fund their medical school programs and train students. Both universities are developing new partnerships and new teaching models to circumvent the daunting economic climate.
UC-Davis Wins Emergency Services Lawsuit
The courts have sided with UC-Davis Medical Center, ruling this week that Sacramento County must pay for emergency services for indigent patients.
Superior Court Judge Lloyd Connelly said the county has a responsibility to pay for indigent care, whether the county contracts with a specific provider of those emergency services or not.
“The judge rejected every defense the county had to not pay us,” UC-Davis attorney David Levine said. “He conclusively confirmed that they owe us money, and they have to pay us.”
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.
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.
Crisis Creates New Way To Train Family Physicians in Valley
A residency program in Modesto bypasses the hospital as a home base and instead trains family physicians in community health centers. According to one expert, the new approach “makes ‘change’ a positive word in the residency world.”
How Can California Solve Family Physician Shortage?
California — like many parts of the country — is facing a shortage of family physicians on the eve of a significant expansion of the health care system. We asked experts and stakeholders what California policymakers can do to encourage a healthy supply of care providers.
Unsolved Mystery: Could Secret Shoppers Have Helped Reform Law?
The Obama administration’s plan to use mystery shoppers to gauge physician wait times was abruptly killed on Tuesday. Health policy experts sleuth out why the program met its sudden end and whether it will hurt health reform implementation.