Latest California Healthline Stories
California Dental Care Crisis Could Get Worse With Budget
California has the second-lowest ranking for children’s oral health care in the nation, according to the National Survey of Children’s Health. Pre-schoolers have rotten teeth, oral infections and metal caps — and if proposed budget cuts go through, it could get worse.
Single Payer Bill Back in the Mix
The normally sedate audience at an Assembly health committee hearing broke into spontaneous applause last week as Senate member Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) stepped to the microphone. Leno was introducing SB 810, which would establish a single-payer health care system in California.
The burst of applause came from a busload of supporters in the hearing room. It has been a long, hard fight for single-payer advocates. Twice the idea has been approved by the state legislature, and twice it has been vetoed by the governor.
The single-payer system would bypass health insurance companies in California, handing the authority and responsibility of health care administration to the state. With passage of a national health care reform law, some expected the single-payer idea to wither on the vine. But at last week’s Assembly Health Committee hearing, it was alive and well.
Medi-Cal Waiver Gets Senate Committee Approval After Unusual Third Tier of Testimony
You know you’re in murky legislative territory when the format of a health committee meeting has to be changed to accommodate the complicated nature of the proposed bill.
In this case, it was AB 342 by John Perez (D-Los Angeles), which the Senate Health Committee eventually approved at its hearing last week. It is the companion Medi-Cal waiver bill to SB 208, which recently passed the Assembly Health Committee.
Usually, committees hear pro and con testimony, but for AB 342, Senate committee chair Elaine Alquist (D-Santa Clara) made a third category. “It’s a hybrid category just for this one bill,” Alquist said. “For those who are neither opposed nor support, but have concerns.”
Assembly OKs Direct Hiring of Doctors
California law prohibits hospitals from hiring physicians directly. Instead, health institutions hire physician groups; it’s a law designed to keep a layer of bureaucratic insulation between doctors and hospitals.
But that prohibition may be lifted, in some cases. The Assembly voted this week in favor of SB 726 by Roy Ashburn (R-Bakersfield). The bill has already passed the Senate, and now heads back to the Senate for concurrence.
Concurrence approval by the Senate is not a rubber stamp, however. The bill passed the Senate a year ago last June, and it was different in many ways from the bill passed this week in the Assembly. (The California Medical Association, for example, supported SB 726 a year ago, but does not support this version of the bill.)
How Small Businesses Can Make Most of Health Care Reform
We asked small business experts and insurers to share insights about how California small businesses can make the most of health care reform while dealing with new administrative burdens it brings.
How Much Risk Will $761 Million Pay For?
The state legislature passed two bills yesterday that establish a temporary high-risk insurance pool. California currently has a high-risk pool system that handles 7,100 patients across the state. The new legislation would corral $761 million in federal funds over the next four years to create a significantly larger program.
High-risk pools are designed to insure those who can’t get health insurance. But that “uninsurable” bar is pretty low, according to legislative advocate Elizabeth Lansberg of the Western Center on Law & Poverty.
“Being uninsurable is not hard to achieve,” Lansberg said. “There are many people who just have high blood pressure or high cholesterol. But if you’re over 45 and have a pre-existing condition, it can be nearly impossible to get coverage.”
San Diego Biotech Gets Boost From Reform Tax Credit
San Diego, a national hub for biotechnology, has seen a flurry of activity as companies prepare to apply for a new tax credit included the health care reform package that will provide $1 billion to small biotech and life sciences companies.
Out-of-State Physician Reviews Questioned
It’s relatively common practice for utilization reviews — that is, a request for medical services reviewed to comply with treatment guidelines — to be conducted by out-of-state physicians.
A new law, SB 933 by Senate member Paul Fong (D-Cupertino), would end that practice.
On Wednesday, the Senate Labor and Industrial Relations Committee approved Fong’s bill. It is headed to the Senate floor for a vote … maybe. A policy review is under way to determine whether the bill should first go through the Appropriations Committee.
Close Vote, Heated Talk on Physician Employment in Assembly
Should hospitals or health districts be allowed to directly employ physicians? The charged issue crosses party lines, and the Assembly’s recent floor vote showed just how divided it is.
Booming Need for Senior Centers
Like all social services in California, senior centers are short of funding. They are struggling to maintain their current level of programs and services and on top of that they need to prepare for the huge wave of aging Baby Boomers about to hit senior centers across the state.
According to a report by the Congress of California Seniors released Tuesday to coincide with a legislative hearing on the subject, the state’s senior centers are in disrepair and ill-prepared to deal with the burgeoning number of Californians expected to join the senior ranks in the next decade.
“The demographic shift is so undeniable,” Assembly member Mariko Yamada (D-Davis) said. Yamada, chair of the Aging and Long-Term Care Committee oversight hearing Tuesday as well as a Boomer herself, said she’s been seeing the approach of what she calls the “silver tsunami” for years. She vows she and other seniors-to-be will work to get senior centers the infrastructure funding they need to survive and thrive.