Archived California Healthcare News

Christopher \"Kit\" Bond is back. The two-term governor (1973-76 and 1981-84) has been walking the Missouri Capitol\'s hallways and meeting with legislators, some of whom weren\'t born when he first came to Jefferson City as state auditor in 1970.

A group of California outpatient surgical centers has sued UnitedHealth Group, claiming the Minnesota-based insurance giant has systematically blocked claims they have submitted for performing lapband weight-loss surgery on hundreds of patients. UnitedHealth countered that the surgery centers were all affiliated with the controversial 1-800-Get-Thin billboard marketing campaign to bring in patients.

Tommy Leep spent weeks researching insurance plans after leaving his job at a Silicon Valley venture capital firm in December and becoming an independent consultant. \"I was afraid that if I hurt myself, it would cost me a lot of money,\" said the 29-year-old, who enjoys playing soccer, running and surfing.

Just because open enrollment for people who buy their own health insurance formally closed March 31 doesn\'t mean debate over the health law will take a hiatus. After more than four years of strident rhetoric, evidence about how the law is actually working is starting to trickle in. Here are seven things to watch before the next enrollment period begins in November:

The story of the Affordable Care Act has been limned with woe: Balky websites, people supposedly losing their insurance coverage, declarations by many prominent voices that it is a “trainwreck,” among other less-than-charitable descriptions. But there have also been successes, and the Golden State can lay claim to many of them. The biggest one of all may be the Covered California insurance exchange. Forecasters with the University of California projected that a maximum of 830,000 residents would obtain coverage through the state\'s exchange. It topped the 1 million mark earlier this month, with open enrollment continuing through Monday.

Signatures For MICRA Proposition Submitted

The Santa Monica-based advocacy group Consumer Watchdog has gathered 840,000 signatures to place on the November ballot a proposition that would raise the current cap on noneconomic damaged related to medical malpractice.

Ten states — seven of them controlled by Republicans —hold the key to whether the Obama administration succeeds at signing up 6 million people by the deadline of March 31. Those large states account for nearly 30 million uninsured — almost two-thirds of the nation’s 47 million uninsured.

New York has yet to reach 700,000. Minnesota has barely broken 100,000. Ohio is struggling to reach 80,000. Oregon would be happy to obtain 40,000. Those are health plan enrollment numbers from various state health exchanges, some of which have embraced the Affordable Care Act, others that have been more hostile to the reform law.

San Francisco-based Blue Shield of California has launched its second accountable care organization in the past week, working with hospital operator Dignity Health and the Hill Physicians Medical Group to deliver integrated care in northern San Joaquin Valley.