Latest California Healthline Stories
Solvent Again, State Rural Health Association Rising Slowly, Carefully
After two years of financial struggle since closing up shop in Sacramento, the California State Rural Health Association is solvent again and planning to grow.
Debate over mandatory use of California’s Controlled Substance Utilization Review and Evaluation System continues to simmer, as other states adopt mandatory compliance and the California Medical Association continues to oppose it.
California’s Precision Medicine Initiative Targets Hard-To-Diagnose Diseases
Gov. Brown, UC-San Francisco researcher Esteban Burchard, UCSF researcher Atul Butte, UCSF infectious disease specialist Charles Chiu and patient family member Julie Osborn of Wisconsin spoke with California Healthline about California’s initiative to boost precision medicine research to help prevent and treat the root cause of illnesses such as encephalitis and sepsis, which sometimes can be difficult to diagnose.
What’s Behind the Committee Door?
In the scrum of Sacramento politics and influence, some controversial bills are buried into the ground at the committee level. But recently, in a neat political power play, a few given-up-for-dead anti-tobacco bills pulled a little end-around.
IBM Hopes CVS-Watson Partnership Leads to More Connections in Cloud
IBM officials hope a new partnership with CVS pharmacies will create a platform in the Watson Health Cloud to allow many organizations and agencies to collaborate with the goal of eventually improving the country’s health care delivery system.
San Diego Navigators Target Hard-To-Reach Groups for Exchange
A dozen agencies serving San Diego County received Covered California navigator grants to help bring harder-to-reach populations into the health insurance exchange.
Changes Afoot for Orange County Duals
After several false starts, Orange County is set to launch its enrollment process for the duals demonstration project — but with a slightly modified timeline.
Evaluation Trumps Incarceration in L.A. Police Dept. Mental Health Efforts
The Los Angeles Police Department’s Mental Evaluation Unit is winning rave reviews locally, in other states and from a few foreign countries, as well. Stakeholders say the program could be even better with more resources.
Report Highlights Importance of Calif.’s Social Safety Net for Children’s Health
More than half the children in California are enrolled in at least one nutrition assistance or public health insurance program, but participation varies significantly across the state, creating disparities, according to a report from the Public Policy Institute of California.
Can a Tech Startup Transform Health Care in One Rural County in California?
Esther Dyson of the Way to Wellville project, Marshall Kubota of Partnership HealthPlan of California, Chad Lindsay of Porterville, David Santos of St. Helena Hospital and Karen Tait from Lake County’s public health department spoke with California Healthline about the proposed Health Homes plan to improve quality and reduce costs of super-utilizers in the Medi-Cal program.