Archived California Healthcare News

Several red-state governors have dropped their opposition to Medicaid expansion in recent months and are pursuing ways to use federal dollars to fund their own more conservative plans. Whether that occurs in Kansas and neighborhing Missouri remains to be seen. Governors in the solidly red states of Utah, Wyoming, Montana and Tennessee are pursuing expansion options that seek to use billions in additional federal Medicaid dollars to help low-income adults purchase private coverage or create health savings accounts. Many of the proposals, which require federal approval, also include incentives aimed at helping recipients get better jobs so that they can purchase their own coverage without government assistance.

Under the Affordable Care Act, millions of low-income adults last year became eligible for Medicaid and subsidized health insurance for the first time. Now states face a huge challenge: how to deal with an onslaught of able-bodied, 18- to 64-year olds who haven’t seen a doctor in years. “It took a lot of time and effort to enroll everyone, particularly those who were new to the system,” said Matt Salo, director of the National Association of Medicaid Directors. “The next big step, and the biggest unknown, is finding out exactly how this newly insured population will use the health care system.”

The California Department of Public Health reported on Wednesday that there had been an outbreak of measles within the state connected to recent visits to the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim. The CDPH confirmed seven measles cases from five different areas of the state, two others in Utah, and three other suspected cases that remain under investigation.

The health law’s ambitious lab for transforming how medicine is delivered and financed submitted its official report card to Congress late last month, boasting of a few early results but mostly showing many works in progress. If you’re covered by Medicare, Medicaid or even private insurance, there’s a decent chance you’re part of one of the Department of Health and Human Services’ tests to improve care and control costs.

The California Department of Managed Health Care is ending 2014 with a regulatory flourish, handing down five five-figure fines totaling $132,000 during the first few days of December. The biggest penalty was levied against Oakland-based Kaiser Foundation Health Plan. It was fined $75,000 for its 2010 refusal to provide a response to a patient grievance within 72 hours and a series of violations related to that incident.

California Controller and Treasurer-Elect John Chiang has expressed concerns to California Attorney General Kamala Harris regarding the acquisition of the Daughters of Charity hospital chain by Ontario-based Prime Healthcare Services. “I am concerned that Prime\'s very low credit rating and its exposure to potential liabilities associated with existing litigation introduces a level of worrisome risk that may distort Prime\'s healthcare and workforce decisions, leading to potential detriment to the communities served by Daughters,” Chiang wrote to Harris last week.

Sean Parker Funds Allergy Research Center At Stanford

Silicon Valley entrepreneur Sean Parker will donate $24 million over the next two years to establish a new research center for allergies at the Stanford University School of Medicine.

When Anna Duleep went shopping recently for 2015 health coverage on the Connecticut insurance exchange, she was pleasantly surprised to find a less expensive plan. To get the savings, the substitute math teacher had to change from for-profit giant Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield to a fledgling carrier she’d never heard of. Still, Duleep, 37, liked saving $10 on her monthly premium of about $400 and knowing that her new plan, HealthyCT, is a nonprofit governed by consumers. She also liked that all her doctors participate. “I just figured, ‘why not change?’” she said.