Latest California Healthline Stories
Health Care Providers Gearing Up To Roll Out Accountable Care Organizations in California
Don Crane of the California Association of Physician Groups, Kristen Miranda of Blue Shield of California and Leah Newkirk of the California Academy of Family Physicians spoke with California Healthline about efforts to create accountable care organizations in California.
More Money Could Go to Work Force Training, Report Says
The California Senate Office of Research released a report yesterday that looks at where federal funding for work force investment is going. And, apparently, it’s not to work force training.
“In California, most Local Workforce Investment Boards have reported investing little of their federal funds into work force training and instead have spent a substantial amount on other employment services,” the report stated.
There are hundreds of millions of dollars allocated to California each year under the federal Workforce Investment Act of 1998, according to the report. Most of that money is spent at the local level, in local investment boards.
Physicians Scarce for Latinos in California
There are two main hurdles to getting quality health care among the Latino population, according to David Hayes-Bautista, founding director of UCLA medical school’s Center for the Study of Latino Health and Culture.
Access is the No. 1 issue and linguistic competency is No. 2, Hayes-Bautista said.
Hayes-Bautista was part of a forum convened last week in Sacramento by the Latino Community Development Foundation — a forum that included Health and Human Services Secretary Diana Dooley and a number of state Senate and Assembly members.
Trying To Bridge Gap Between Direct Hiring, Access
It’s a bill that keeps coming up — by the same author three years in a row, and in three different forms in the previous legislative session. But this time around, Assembly member Sandré Swanson (D-Alameda) swears it will be different.
And for one day, at least, it was.
Swanson’s bill, AB 1360, on Monday passed out of the Assembly Committee on Business, Professions and Consumer Protection on a 5-3 vote. It now heads to the health committee. It’s a bill that attempts to address the shortage of physicians in underserved and rural areas by allowing some hospitals in those districts to hire them directly. The idea is medical facilities would be better able to attract physicians — particularly primary care doctors — if they were allowed to negotiate directly with them.
Cash, Credits, Peer Support Incentives To Alter Bad Health Habits
Paying workers to take care of themselves could seem like an odd notion, but California businesses are funding wellness incentive programs to encourage employees to live healthier lives and in turn miss less work, be more productive and cut medical costs.
Direct Hiring, Physical Therapist Issue Head CMA List
During the California Medical Association’s 37th Annual Legislative Leadership Conference this week in Sacramento, the organization outlined some of the legislation it would fight for this year — and legislation it would fight against.
“Sometimes it feels like Groundhog Day around here,” CMA legislative analyst Jodi Hicks said. “Every year, it seems, we have this discussion about a plan to have some kind of direct hiring of physicians, and what that should look like.”
Last year, three different bills were proposed on the issue. Two new bills have been proposed this year to allow direct hiring of physicians by hospitals, in an effort to increase the number of primary care physicians working in rural and underserved areas in California.
New Bill Would Take Over MRMIP Money
The legislative season has begun, with dozens of bills moving through committees this week.
The Senate Health Committee this week approved a measure designed to increase the number of physicians, nurses and allied health professionals in California — just when demand for those jobs may be at its highest point.
“SB 635 would direct money that is currently going to MRMIP (Major Risk Medical Insurance Program), which is being phased out by national health care reforms,” according to Senate member Ed Hernandez (D-Los Angeles), author of the bill and head of the Health Committee. “The money funding MRMIP can be spent now on the vital job of increasing the health care work force in California.”
Regional Meetings Focus on Work Force Shortages
By the time the California Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development completes a series of regional focus groups, it should have a good handle on creating a robust health care work force. The 10th meeting is scheduled this week in Ontario.
Regional leaders have been charged with offering suggestions on training, recruiting and retaining quality health care workers, while buttressing the impact of reform.
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is bolstering efforts to increase the work force through a variety of provisions addressing the primary care system.
Concierge Medicine Growing in L.A., Orange Counties
Proponents of concierge medicine compare it to buying a first-class seat instead of economy on airplanes. Critics say new, direct models of payment growing in popularity in Southern California widen the gap between the haves and have-nots.
California Colleges, Universities Mulling Ways To Expand Role of Nurses in Primary Care
Bonnie Castillo of the California Nurses Association, John Rowe of Columbia University’s School of Public Health and Heather Young of the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC-Davis spoke with California Healthline about the future of nursing.