In Brief: Sharp Pulls Out of Pioneer ACO; Covered California To Add Dental Benefits
Sharp Pulls Out Of Pioneer ACO
San Diego-based Sharp Healthcare has withdrawn from its Pioneer ACO due to its inability to make the finances work.
Sharp, which operates five hospitals in the San Diego area, disclosed the pullout in its most recent quarterly financial report. Officials said while it broke even during its first two years of operations providing care to some 28,000 Medicare enrollees, it appeared to be headed into the red in subsequent years because payments had not been adjusted in a way to match the costs of providing care and wages for its employees, which have gone up sharply in recent years.
Sharp is the 10th provider organizing to pull out of a Pioneer ACO. The program started with 30 ACOs nationwide.
Covered California To Add Dental Benefits
The Covered California health insurance exchange will be adding dental benefits to some components of its healthcare coverage for calendar 2015 enrollees.
The coverage includes free pediatric dental benefits to any individual enrollees who have covered dependents under the age of 19, although some families may be restricted to seeing specific providers.
Optional coverage for adults and children will also be offered at an extra cost.
“They will be getting better coverage and more for their money,” said Covered California Executive Director Peter V. Lee.
Coverage for children and adults will be offered either through dental plans owned by existing healthcare carriers such as Anthem Blue Cross of California and Blue Shield of California, or by Delta Dental of California, Liberty Dental Plan, Dental Benefit Providers and California Dental Network, among others.
Many of the current enrollees with dependent children have already been notified by mail of the change, and some have even been sent enrollment cards, although they will not go into effect until January 2015.
The standalone dental benefits will not be immediately available for purchase when open enrollment starts in November, but will be available in early 2015, officials said.
Kaiser Patient Tests Negative For Ebola Virus
A patient being treated at Kaiser Permanente’s hospital in South Sacramento has tested negative for the Ebola virus, state health officials said late last week.
The patient, who was not identified, had been placed under a special quarantine while their blood was tested at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.
Prior to the test results becoming available, officials with the California Department of Public Health had suggested the patient may have been exposed to the Ebola virus.
“We are pleased with the negative outcome of the Ebola test and wish the patient a speedy recovery,” said CDPH Director Ron Chapman, M.D.
Chapman added that the system worked as designed and that the risk for Ebola cases in California was small.
