California Watch
News stories in this section spotlight activities in California, including actions by the state Assembly and state Senate; proposed legislation; regulators like the Department of Managed Health Care and Department of Insurance; and the state ACA exchange, Covered California.
A crack that formed by chance in an overheated chemical tank in Southern California relieved pressure and helped avert a catastrophic explosion, but officials said Tuesday it still wasn’t safe enough for 16,000 people living closest to the aerospace plant to return home. The crisis forced 50,000 people to evacuate in and around the Orange County city ...
At a White House event, Vance said the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services would withhold $1.3 billion in Medicaid funding from the state of California, as officials have "not taken fraud very seriously."
A $25 million grant to cash-strapped hospitals became law less than a week after it was introduced — so fast that it caught some hospitals, their advocates, and even some lawmakers, off guard. It also left a litany of unanswered questions: who came up with the narrow criteria, how many hospitals would qualify and whether ...
When Gavin Newsom ran for California governor in 2018, his support for a state-run single-payer healthcare system was considered a risky move and earned him hefty labor endorsements. Today, leading Democrats in the wide-open race to succeed Newsom have embraced single-payer as a political necessity, an answer to voters fed up with rising premiums and other spiraling healthcare ...
State Obamacare marketplaces are starting to feel tremors from the GOP-controlled Congress’s ending of enhanced subsidies, as millions of Americans are dropping coverage. Experts and state officials say the impact varies from state to state, but enrollment decline is expected to grow this year and beyond, as policies from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act and potential Trump ...
Gov. Gavin Newsom announced last week that California is expanding behavioral health treatment capacity statewide through a series of new and ongoing projects aimed at increasing mental health and substance use disorder services.
Four Californians exposed to the deadly Hantavirus outbreak linked to a Dutch cruise ship are being monitored by health officials — including one Bay Area resident who was aboard the vessel before the illness was detected. The California Department of Public Health said on Monday it is coordinating with the CDC and local health officials after three California ...
A new task force will investigate healthcare fraud cases in Nevada, Arizona and part of California, the Justice Department announced Thursday. The West Coast Health Care Fraud Strike Force will combine resources from DOJ’s National Fraud Enforcement Division, and its the Health Care Fraud Section, with U.S. attorney’s offices in Nevada, Arizona and the Northern ...
In his earliest days in the governor’s office, Gavin Newsom huddled with his advisers to consider how to realize a key campaign promise: transforming a healthcare system replete with insurance company intermediaries into the nation’s first state-run single-payer model.
“This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters.” California has emerged as the epicenter of a sweeping hospice fraud crisis, one that is costing taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars and putting vulnerable seniors at risk. Yet years after the state acknowledged the problem, key regulatory fixes remain in limbo while ...