Latest California Healthline Stories
UC System May End Health Care Caps, Making New Bill Moot
A bill introduced last week, AB 314 by Assembly member Richard Pan (D-Sacramento), would eliminate fiscal caps on medical care for University of California students.
UC officials said they’re considering their own internal proposal to erase the caps, which would make the proposed legislation moot, but bill author Pan said he plans to go ahead with the legislation to ensure the rule is changed.
“It’s only fair that [UC students] should have the same protections as the rest of California,” Pan said, referring to provisions in the Affordable Care Act that prohibit lifetime caps on care. Even people in high-risk insurance pools had lifetime caps lifted last year.
New Navy Hospital in San Diego Sign of the Changing Times
San Diego’s new Navy hospital, which will have relatively few inpatient beds but a busy flow of outpatients, is described by one consultant as “a great example of what everybody else should be looking to do in their communities.”
Standards Release a ‘Milestone’ for Exchange
Covered California, the state’s health benefit exchange, yesterday released its benefit standards outlining the basis for choosing qualified health plans that will participate in the exchange.
“This is another milestone for the exchange,” said Diana Dooley, secretary of the state Health and Human Services Agency. “We have a lot of hurdles to get over, we still have a lot to do, but this is another successful milestone toward the health care reform effort.”
Covered California also submitted an intention to file emergency regulations with the Office of Administrative Law last week, outlining its pediatric dental benefit policy. The exchange is expected to file those regulations Friday, according to Brandon Ross, staff counsel for Covered California.
Path to Partnership: More States Opt for HHS’ Hybrid Exchanges
“Road to Reform” examines why HHS created the partnership insurance exchange model — and which states are eyeing the hybrid model ahead of this Friday’s deadline for participation.
Health Reform Benchmarks Linked to FQHCs
Federally qualified health centers (FQHCs) already have shown some of the results pursued by the Affordable Care Act, according to a study released this week by the California Primary Care Association.
The CPCA commissioned researchers to compare high-cost factors, such as hospital stays and emergency department use, as well as total cost of care, between FQHCs and non-FQHCs in California.
Some of the findings from John Snow, Inc. Health Services Division, a public health research firm based in Boston, were released Monday and showed enviable differences in FQHC care:
Higher Profile Coming to Exchange
California’s health benefit exchange is nearing its move into the mainstream public spotlight — but there is a lot of work still ahead, according to experts who gathered in Sacramento yesterday for a roundtable discussion of the exchange.
Yesterday’s symposium, called “Covered California: The Challenges and Opportunities of California’s Health Benefit Exchange,” was presented by the University of Southern California’s Price School of Public Policy and the USC Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics and Quintiles.
Assembly member Richard Pan (D-Sacramento) acknowledged that creation of the exchange has helped place California at the head of the health care reform pack, but he said that leadership role doesn’t change the 2014 deadline that’s looming for health care reform and the exchange.
New Reform Analogy at National Policy Conference
HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius compared health care reform to synchronized swimming this week, an analogy that grew legs of its own at the National Health Policy Conference in Washington, D.C.
Insuring a Better Future for the State?
State officials and health care experts yesterday said the governor’s decision to sign on to optional expansion of Medi-Cal could be a huge step forward for California’s health system — and a huge challenge, as well, they said.
More than 700 stakeholders gathered in downtown Sacramento for the annual conference of the Insure the Uninsured Project heard dozens of experts evaluate how far California has come in implementing health care reform, and how far it still has to go.
Adding roughly 1.4 million Californians to Medi-Cal eligibility in the optional expansion (adding adults up to 138% of federal poverty level) may be fully funded by the federal government for the first three years, but it also brings a boatload of work to the state. It’s worth the extra effort for the sake of beneficiaries and for the savings the state stands to make in reduced hospital and emergency department costs, said Diana Dooley, state Secretary of Health and Human Services.
Obamacare Will Bring Changes — and Walgreens Wants ‘To Fill the Void’
After more than five years of ramping up health services, Walgreens last month took another major step and launched three accountable care organizations. The chain’s executives say that it’s poised to fill gaps in health care, especially with rising demand brought on by the Affordable Care Act.
Finance, Health Care Linked in Expansion Effort
State health care and finance officials met for the first time with stakeholders Friday to outline some of the differences between two possible approaches — state-based or county-based — to implementing the state’s optional Medi-Cal expansion.
Many details of the proposed expansion of Medi-Cal are unknown, state officials said Friday because they’re waiting for more federal guidance in many areas. One important detail is known: the federal government will fully pay for the expansion benefits for new enrollees for the first three years.
Diana Dooley, the state’s Secretary of Health and Human Services, said implementing the expansion will be influenced in equal parts by financial and health care considerations.