Archived California Healthcare News

Covered California Executive Director Peter V. Lee has been fairly taciturn since Donald Trump was inaugurated president three years ago, and after failing to repeal the Affordable Care Act, began revising rules and regulations to chip away at the effectiveness of the landmark healthcare law. Lee ended his tongue-biting this week.

Oakland-based Kaiser Permanente said this week it is in support of a bill in the Senate intended to eliminate the sales of all flavored tobacco and vaping products. If enacted, the bill, SB 793, would be among the most stringent laws in the nation governing tobacco sales. It would ban sales of menthol cigarettes and flavored chewing tobacco – both of which have been on the market for decades. Many flavored vaping products would also be banned.

- From June 2016 through 2018, 1,108 prescriptions have been written for lethal medications

- 807 people, or 72.8%, have died after ingesting the medications in that period

- 86.7% of those who died were receiving hospice and/or palliative care

- In 2018, 337 people died from ingesting the medications

Gov. Gavin Newsom was a single-payer candidate.

The Democrat campaigned hard for the creation of one public insurance program for all Californians. And within hours of taking office last year, he called on the federal government to allow California and other states to create single-payer programs.

The U.S. Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration this week to begin implementing a new rule that would potentially bar migrants from undergoing naturalization if they relied too much on public benefits, including Medi-Cal in California. The legality of the rule is currently being litigated in federal courts, but the high court lifted a stay on enacting the policy and is allowing it to be carried out until its ultimate legality is decided.

A telephone survey conducted by researchers at UC San Francisco found that fewer than half of California pharmacies provided disposal instructions meeting U.S. Food and Drug Administration guidelines, and just 10% followed the FDA’s preferred recommendation to take back unused medications from their customers.

47% of pharmacies gave the correct instructions on how to dispose of antibiotics, and only 19% gave correct instructions for opioids.
 

When President Barack Obama enacted the Affordable Care Act a nearly decade ago, the broad aim was to improve healthcare access. One of the pieces of that legislation: requiring doctors to use electronic health records.

Electronic health records, which include health histories, prescriptions and test results, are now commonplace—but not everyone has access to them.

The California Department of Public Health (CDPH) has fined Pomona Valley Medical Center $28,900 for discovering an object that had been left in the patient during a prior surgery and failing to advise the agency within the mandated timeframe, records show.

Health Plan - Penalty $ per Enrollee Average

Anthem Blue Cross - $2.53
Health Net of California Inc. - $1.35
Molina Healthcare of California - $1.20
Blue Shield of California - $0.73
UnitedHealthcare of California - $0.54
L.A. Care Health Plan - $0.36
Kaiser Permanente - $0.29
Health Net Community Solutions Inc. - $0.05
Inland Empire Health Plan - $0.08
CalOptima - $0.03