Latest California Healthline Stories
A consumer advocacy group took on the chair of the Senate Health Committee at the end of last week, and it has stirred up Sacramento.
The ad was in reaction to the legislative decision to delay a vote on AB 52 by Mike Feuer (D-Los Angeles) and Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael), the proposal to regulate health insurance rate increases.
According to Jamie Court of Consumer Watchdog, Sen. Ed Hernandez (D-West Covina) was responsible for a lot of the resistance to that measure. Watchdog ran a television advertisement that attacked Hernandez for financial ties to Kaiser Permanente and for how he treated one member of the public at a hearing.
California Lands HHS Rate Review Grants, but No Bonuses
Because California lacks the authority to reject health insurance premiums considered unreasonable, two federal grants the state received this week were smaller than they might have been. HHS handed out $109 million in grants to help states strengthen oversight of health insurance premiums.
L.A. Care Health Plan’s Elaine Batchlor Talks About Efforts To Improve Safety-Net Care
Elaine Batchlor, chief medical officer at L.A. Care Health Plan, spoke with California Healthline about the challenges facing safety-net health programs and the opportunities to address such challenges through innovation.
What Texas Can Teach California About Health Care Reform
Texas’ hands-off approach to its health care safety net can offer takeaways for California, either as a hard lesson for the cash-strapped Golden State — or as an example of what not to do.
Legislature Passes Healthy Families Money, Mulls DMHC Move
Among the raft of bills that floated through the Legislature in the final days of session were two big health-related ones:
• The Assembly, after trying and failing by one vote to pass ABX1 21 by Bob Blumenfield (D-Woodland Hills), yesterday took up the measure again and this time passed it, 61-9; and
• An Assembly bill, AB 922 by Bill Monning (D-Carmel), is designed to expand and move the Office of the Patient Advocate. It took on an amendment that also moves its parent agency, the Department of Managed Health Care. Those agencies currently reside under the Department of Business, Transportation and Housing.
Bill To Create Basic Health Program Delayed
The two biggest health care bills this year will have to wait till next year.
First it was AB 52, the bill to regulate health insurance rate hikes, that did not make it out of appropriations committee, and will wait till 2012 to be heard again. And now it’s SB 703 by Ed Hernandez (D-West Covina), which would establish a Basic Health Program in California.
“It’s official now, it is a two-year bill,” according to John Ramey, executive director of Local Health Plans of California.
Committees Move Host of Bills, Including Rate Regulation
The Senate and Assembly appropriations committees moved fast and furiously yesterday, sending a range of health-related bills out of committee and onto the legislative floor.
That includes the most controversial item on either docket, AB 52 by Assembly members Mike Feuer (D-Los Angeles) and Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael), which would authorize the state to regulate health insurance rates.
In other news, the state controller yesterday reiterated his strong request to the Department of Health Care Services to back off from expanding a relationship with a provider of ADHC-like services, because he says that provider owes the state $339 million. Details are further below.
Did the Democrats Miss Chance To Protect Reform Law?
The 11th Circuit Court’s decision to strike down the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate raises questions for the law’s future, but also its past. Could the White House have better constructed its sweeping health law to avoid constitutional challenges?
Rate Regulation, Basic Health Headed to Floor?
The state Legislature reconvenes today, starting with a Senate Committee on Appropriations hearing with 167 items on the agenda. The Assembly’s Appropriations Committee meets Wednesday, with 184 items to consider.
Those numbers will be whittled down for this week’s hearings, but generally Appropriations is the final destination before an actual floor vote for any bill that might spend money. That’s why the two committees will have so many menu items from which to choose.
Among the bills that still need to clear the Appropriations hurdle is AB 52 — by Assembly members Mike Feuer (D-Los Angeles) and Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael) — which is the health insurance rate regulation bill. Also up is the bill to create a Basic Health Program, SB 703, by Sen. Ed Hernandez (D-West Covina).
Should State Consolidate Health Plan Regulation? How, When?
California is the only state with two bureaucracies keeping tabs on health insurers. Should California consolidate health care regulation in one agency? If so, how and when? We asked experts and stakeholders to weigh in.