Archived California Healthcare News

California Gets Barely Passing Grade For Emergency Care

The American College of Emergency Physicians gave California an overall grade of “C-” for the emergent care services it provides patients, ranking it 23rd in the nation. The state continued to receive a failing grade for access to emergency care, ranking it 42nd out of 50 states.

Nearly a quarter of the 2.2 million people who have enrolled in health coverage in the health law\'s insurance marketplaces are young adults — the population that\'s hardest to reach and yet most vital for the financial stability of the new exchanges, the Obama administration announced Monday. While federal officials say they are pleased with the early turnout, they want to increase the proportion of young adults buying plans before open enrollment ends March 31. Almost 40 percent of the potential market for the exchanges is people 18 to 34 years old. Based on the Congressional Budget Office estimate that 7 million people would enroll this year, that would be 2.7 million young adults.

The Department of Managed Health Care has issued a rare cease and desist order to two Riverside County physicians and their affiliated medical groups for balance billing insured patients, suing them and referring them to collections agencies. The order, issued on Dec. 16 against Southwest Trauma Medical Associates in Murrieta and Festus B. Dada, M.D., and Bolaji A. Nafiu, M.D., is the first such action taken by the DMHC in nearly three years, and only the second one taken against individual physicians in the agency\'s history.

A new report by an Oakland-based labor union revealed the nation\'s most costly hospitals, with a dozen of the top 100 located in California. According to a research institute affiliated with the National Nurses United, 12 of the most 100 expensive hospitals in the U.S. are located in California. Ten are either owned by for-profit companies or hospital chains.

Aetna Launches Smartphone Pilot Project

Aetna's Medicaid plan in Illinois has begun a pilot project to equip homecare workers with smartphones.

People with chronic conditions will be better protected from crippling medical bills starting in January as the health law’s coverage requirements and spending limits take effect. But a recent analysis by Avalere Health found that many may still find themselves “underinsured,” spending more than 10 percent of their income on medical care, not including premiums, even if they qualify for cost-sharing subsidies on the health insurance marketplaces.

Affluent versus poor. Rural versus urban. Minorities versus whites. These are the fault lines most likely to determine whether Californians have health insurance and regular access to medical care, according to new data from the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research.

At a time when the rollout of the federal health insurance exchange website has been thorny at best and some state websites such as Oregon\'s have been unmitigated disasters, Covered California continues to rack up new enrollees in commercial health insurance plans. Through Nov. 30, Covered California has enrolled 109,296 individuals into health insurance plans and completed more than 244,000 applications. Through the application process via the coveredca.com website, 219,639 individuals have been determined to be eligible for coverage.

Centene Acquires Majority Stake In U.S. Medical Management

St. Louis-based Centene Health has acquired a majority interest in U.S. Medical Management.