Latest California Healthline Stories
Medical Home Bill Passes Senate
In the last hours of a late-night vote, the Legislature passed a bill that establishes the Patient-Centered Medical Home Act of 2010. Passage of AB 1542 by Dave Jones (D-Sacramento) did not come easily. It failed a vote the day before, and only got the votes it needed at the end of the final day of the session.
(Update: New developments are covered in the Sept. 7 Capitol Desk.)
A relieved Dave Jones practically bounced out of Senate chambers when several Senate members changed their votes and the bill passed.
Rescission Bill Makes the Cut, Goes to Governor
Fiona Ma had the line of the day. The Speaker Pro Tem was leading the Assembly through its paces, through one bill after another, long into the day. In the late afternoon, she announced that she would lift the call vote on six items — usually a sign of wrapping up the day’s proceedings.
“Now don’t get excited,” Ma said, looking up from speaker’s desk. “We’re not going home yet.”
In fact, the Assembly and Senate worked all day, and then convened for rare night sessions yesterday. They passed a number of bills, including several health-related ones.
Normally Aloof, Formal Senate Plays Prank on Itself
There are a handful of legislators who push health care bills in the Assembly. Bill Emmerson (R-Bermuda Dunes), who sat on the Assembly Committee on Health, has been one of them.
But he was presenting a very different kind of bill Wednesday, a vehicle registration amnesty bill. It was one of those kind and gentle bills, with no opposition and no controversy.
So it was a bit of a shock to hear one state senate member after another stand up and vote decisively “No” on it. In a day where many bills passed without one dissent, this one failed, 2-22. It took a moment to see that many senate members were chuckling away about it.
Recruiting, Training More Health Care Workers
There is a dearth of health care providers in California, and the demand for more highly skilled health workers will only increase when national health care reform goes into effect. That’s the word from Tom Riley, legislative advocate for the California Academy of Family Physicians, speaking at a Senate Health Committee hearing last week.
“We think the time has come for this to be front and center in the health care debate, the workforce issue,” Riley said. “This is a terribly important thing for us to be addressing.”
The proposed law, AB 2551 by Assembly member Ed Hernandez (D-West Covina), would establish the Health Workforce Development Council, a task force charged with tackling how to recruit and train a new segment of the health care workforce.
San Diego Embarks On 10-Year Trek Toward Better Health
With the support of a $16.1 million American Recovery and Reinvestment Act grant, San Diego is reshaping public health and the design of its care delivery system to meet future health challenges and reduce the burden of chronic disease.
New Rules Requiring Health Insurers To Offer Preventive Services May Help Remove Barriers
Ned Calonge of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, Tom Hubbard of the New England Healthcare Institute and Jerry Kominski of UCLA’s School of Public Health discussed the new rules with California Healthline.
Law Takes Aim at Crowded Emergency Departments
California’s emergency departments are packed. As the ranks of the uninsured and underinsured across the state have grown, and their health problems have tended to fester and grow more acute, patients have been heading to emergency rooms in record numbers.
That means wait times have become much longer in emergency departments, and patient care is more likely to be compromised under the crush of increased demand.
A bill to address that problem — AB 2153 by Assembly member Ted Lieu (D-Torrance) — is one Senate floor vote away from going to the governor’s desk.
Riverside Lobbying for Raise in State Health Care Funding
Health care and government officials in Riverside County want to adjust state reimbursement rates they say are inadequate and creating a crisis in health care access. The county has the second-lowest state reimbursement rate for health care services in California.
Big Week for Health Legislation
The Legislature returns from summer recess today and members will need to hit the ground running. The deadline for passing bills is Aug. 31, so the packed agendas of the appropriations committees, both Senate and Assembly, need to be cleared out quickly.
The Senate appropriations committee has 203 laws on its agenda for today and Assembly appropriations is hearing 241 items on Wednesday.
Many of those, approximately 77 of them, are health care bills. If these bills are approved in appropriations, they go out for a floor vote. Here are a few of them:
The Perils, Promise of Retail Clinics in California
Medical clinics in drugstores and large retail emporiums have spread slowly but surely in California, but impending changes from national health care reform could change the nascent retail clinic industry’s growth pattern. Will it get a boost, or will it slow down even further?