Latest California Healthline Stories
Has Reform Improved Health Care Yet?
The bulk of the federal health reform law’s provisions are slated to launch in 2014, but several incremental changes have already taken effect. An early look at those provisions shows mixed results for insurance access, services utilization and system improvements.
Silicon Valley Wrestles With Reform Implications
Silicon Valley health officials outlined Santa Clara County’s health care reform strategy at a recent conference, calling for outreach efforts and an expanded safety net to deal with growing numbers of uninsured residents who will soon become part of the system.
California Exchange Gets Lots of Attention at Conference
California’s new laws establishing a state health insurance exchange attracted plenty of attention last week at the National Academy for State Health Policy’s 23rd annual national conference in New Orleans.
Since the start of the reform debate, questions have swirled about Medicaid’s role and sustainability. New reports raise further concerns about the program’s long-term prognosis.
Jon Kingsdale on Lessons from Massachusetts’ Experience With a Health Insurance Exchange
Jon Kingsdale, independent consultant and former executive director of the Massachusetts Health Connector, spoke with California Healthline about how California could learn from Massachusetts’ health benefit exchange.
“Everyone thinks that January 2014 is years away,” California HHS Director Kim Belshé said. “But 2014 is tomorrow.”
Belshé is referring to setting up the California Health Benefit Exchange, now that the governor signed two exchange bills into law yesterday.
The exchange has to be operational three years from its inception, on Jan. 1, 2014 — but that’s the blink of an eye for a project of this scope and importance, Belshé said.
California Assumes Lead Role in National Reform
No other state has embraced health care reform with the zeal of California. It has passed a number of first-in-the-nation laws — and it stands to reap the benefit of millions of federal dollars. Other states are watching carefully.
The biggest of many decisons the governor faces this week involves creation of the California health care benefits exchange, and no one seems to know which way he’ll go on it.
One of the factors that has fueled the push toward a possible veto of the bill is a report that has many Capitol staffers hopping mad. It was written by Mike Genest, Gov. Schwarzenegger’s former director of the Department of Finance, and it was commissioned by the California Chamber of Commerce, one of the more vocal opponents of the exchange.
According to multiple sources, some of whom requested anonymity, the report promulgates several major fallacies about the power and scope of the proposed benefits exchange:
Spotting a Unicorn: ACOs Inch Closer to Reality
More health care providers are entering into arrangements to create “accountable care organizations,” but these emerging alliances face legal questions because regulators have yet to define ACOs. Potential answers, and several milestones, lie ahead for the model.
Powerful Move To Short-Circuit the Exchange
The biggest and most ground-breaking piece of the California health care reform puzzle might just stay in the box.
The health care benefits exchange that would be created if the governor signs two bills (AB 1602 and SB 900) that were approved by the Legislature would be similar to an exchange set up in Massachusetts, but would be the first of its kind in the nation established to conform to the national health care reform law.
The governor has been getting a big push from Anthem Blue Cross and the California Chamber of Commerce to veto those bills, according to government officials and health care advocates.