The Health Law

Latest California Healthline Stories

Exchange Board Handles New Move Quietly

During the most recent board meeting of the California Health Benefit Exchange, board members gingerly approached the last item on the agenda — would the board stick its toe in political waters?

“I don’t know that it’s the board’s place to do this,” board member Paul Fearer offered at one point. Chair Diana Dooley, secretary of the state HHS agency, announced right at the start of the meeting she would abstain from legislative issues.

But clearly the board felt it was the board’s place to get involved in legislative waters — past the toes and ankle and maybe up to the knee — as it voted 3-0 on several motions to involve the exchange board’s input and opinion on half a dozen legislative bills. 

New Online ‘Refor(u)m’ for State Health Issues

State efforts to enact national health care reform have proceeded at different paces — a situation made clear in a new online forum designed to help states implement the Affordable Care Act.

At a recent forum featuring representatives from North Carolina, New York and Virginia, the wide disparity of progress among the states became apparent.

It was part of an effort to get states to talk to each other about implementation of national health care reform, coordinated by a recently launched website.

Public Agency Takes Up Political Hammer

The board of the California Health Benefit Exchange voted last week to oppose a bill that would establish a basic health plan and to urge the lawmakers behind AB 52, which would regulate rate increases by insurers, to exempt the exchange from that law.

The board also voted to direct staff to work with legislators on four other bills that deal with the exchange — including two laws that directly refer to the exchange in their identifying titles.

All of the votes were 3-0, with member Robert Ross absent and chair Diana Dooley abstaining.

Ranking the Reforms at Risk in a Deficit Deal

As the nation’s leaders lurch toward a deal to cut the deficit, lawmakers have floated a range of possible health care cuts. Here’s a list of potential programs and reform initiatives that are most at risk in the current negotiations.

Incentive Plan Working for Public Hospitals

A big component of the federal Medicaid waiver California officials negotiated last year was the provision to set up an incentive program to redesign systems and improve quality in public hospitals.

It’s going well, apparently.

Melissa Stafford Jones of the California Association of Public Hospitals said all the state’s public hospitals “met their milestones.”