In Brief: MemorialCare, Aetna To Form Accountable Care Initiative; Mercy Redding Backs Down On Tubal Ligation

MemorialCare, Aetna To Form Accountable Care Initiative

The Orange County-based MemorialCare Health System hospital network and insurer Aetna will collaborate to create an accountable care product to the region.

Called Aetna Whole Health, it will feature closely coordinated care and a network of about 2,000 physicians. They will be paid bonuses for keeping hospital readmissions and emergency room visits down, referring patients for preventative care screenings, and for improved management of chronic conditions such as diabetes. 

Coverage will be offered to self-insured businesses in Orange County and Southern Los Angeles County later this year.

“We are proud to team with Aetna to unveil a new health plan option for businesses and their 

employees that offers easy access to a large comprehensive network,” said MemorialCare CEO Barry Arbuckle. “This advances our commitment to highly personalized healthcare that focuses on achieving exceptional outcomes.”

Mercy Redding Backs Down On Tubal Ligation

Mercy Medical Center in Redding has agreed to perform a tubal ligation on an expectant mother when she delivers her child next month, after the American Civil Liberties Union threatened to sue the facility.

Mercy is affiliated with San Francisco-based hospital operator Dignity Health, which has a Catholic orientation.

The Catholic Church is opposed to sterilization, although some Catholic hospitals will perform tubal ligations during a C-section because it is not the primary goal of the surgery. But both the Catholic church and hospitals have shifted back and forth on the issue over the years.

Mercy had denied Rachel Miller’s request for a C-section/tubal ligation last spring, saying it was in conflict with its religious directives. Miller, who is not Catholic, enlisted the ACLU in her fight with the hospital, which claimed sex discrimination and said the hospital could not bar sterilizations if it accepted public funds The organization had noted that there are no other places go give birth in the Redding area that are not affiliated with Dignity or other Catholic organizations.

Dignity has asserted that such procedures will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.

State’s Digital Data May Not Be Safe

A new report by California State Auditor Elaine Howle has concluded that the state’s Department of Technology has failed to safeguard official medical records and other personal information from potential security breaches that could expose them to the public.

According to the report, 73 of the 77 state agencies examined said they were not in compliance with state-mandated safeguards, and the Department of Technology was often unaware of this lack of compliance,

As a result, the data -- which includes medical records but also Social Security numbers and other sensitive data, is vulnerable to unauthorized use or disclosure.