Latest California Healthline Stories
How Should California Handle Eligibility for Long-Term Medi-Cal?
We asked stakeholders and experts what steps state policymakers could take to address questions surrounding eligibility for Medi-Cal long-term care coverage.
President’s First Major Reform to Reform Law May Be DOA
President Obama now backs an effort to let states opt out of significant elements of the health reform law sooner than currently allowed. However, the president’s decision to concede an aspect of his overhaul may not be much of a concession, as the legislation is unlikely to pass.
Health Cuts Raising Seniors’ Hackles
It doesn’t sound like much, the meeting of Senate subcommittee #3.
But tomorrow’s subcommittee hearing is the first time the Legislature will be discussing some of the $1.7 billion in proposed Medi-Cal cuts.
That includes elimination of the Adult Day Health Services program, which Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown hopes would save the state $177 million of general fund money. Lydia Missaelides, executive director of the California Association for Adult Day Services, doesn’t believe it.
New Year, but Same Old Budget Challenges
From coast to coast, governors and state legislators are assuming or returning to office with a common cry: We need to cut Medicaid. Are there new solutions to this old problem?
Researcher Paints Scary Picture of State’s Future
The Medi-Cal system in California is flawed in a basic way, according to researcher Stephen Moses of Pacific Research Institute, a California-based think tank.
“Instead of Medi-Cal being a safety net for the poor,” he said, “it provides very generous benefits to many in the middle class, far more than just the poor.”
The state provides long-term care to people who might have had the means to pay for some form of that care in their lifetimes, Moses contends.
Study Out Next Week on Continuous Coverage
In a study to be released Thursday, a UCLA researcher drew some interesting conclusions about the impact of California’s 12-month continuous Medicaid eligibility policy on continuity of care.
Shana Lavarreda, Director of Health Insurance Studies at UCLA’s Center for Health Policy Research, just completed a study funded by SHARE (the State Health Access Reform Evaluation, a program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation). It tracked where children received care in 2000 and 2001, to measure the effect of the continuous care policy implemented in 2000.
First, she said, one finding really surprised her: “One big finding was that there were still half a million children in California who had discontinuous coverage,” Lavarreda said. “With the huge surge in coverage [after the continuous coverage policy went into effect], we thought children would be covered and remain covered — but you still had kids that were on and off the program.”
Policy Brief Tackles Waiver Policy
A policy brief issued this week summarizes the many facets and programs of the recent federal Medicaid waiver agreement — including one program that few people know about, and which could have a profound effect on public hospitals in California.
“It’s a very exciting and critical element of the waiver,” according to Melissa Stafford Jones, president and CEO of the California Association of Public Hospitals and Health Systems.
“It embodies the principles of health care reform into a system that’s smarter and provides more coordinated care,” Stafford Jones said. “It really puts California at the leading edge of that national effort.”
Rationalizing Rationing in Arizona’s Medicaid Program
Both parties have debated whether the federal health reform law would lead to rationing. After Arizona’s unprecedented cuts to its Medicaid program, new questions have emerged about the difficult trade-offs around health care spending.
Golden State Looks On as Others Threaten To Cut Medicaid
Can states pull out of the Medicaid program — and will they? The questions have taken on sudden importance, as some state officials suggest that health reform’s costs are too high and the federal program too restrictive.
New Waiver Sets Bar High for Other States
“It was a long wait,” Norman Williams of the state’s Department of Health Care Services said with a slight sigh. “But it was worth it. This is a good day for California.”
Williams is talking about the Medicaid waiver, which sets the structure and facilitation requirements for California’s Medi-Cal program. The waiver is worth up to $2 billion a year in federal funding to California for the next five years. This waiver is a huge accomplishment, Williams said, because it takes all the elements of national health care reform, and puts them into practical use.
“This is such an important step,” Williams said, “because it allows us to completely restructure California’s health care system, and to rein in costs in Medi-Cal.”