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.
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s ambitious plan to rein in prescription drug costs through a statewide purchasing system — pooling the power of California’s largest public and private buyers — has a new ally: Los Angeles County.
Sacramento-based Sutter Health and four of its affiliates agreed to pay out $30 million to the federal government to settle allegations that it had overcharged for services provided patients covered by Medicare’s managed care plan, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Friday.
Recently diagnosed with post-traumatic stress, Sacramento firefighter Joshua Katz isn’t ready to give up on what he calls a ‘dream job.’ He still loves his “fire family,” exciting workdays and having a job that lets him help others. He’d rather take time off to treat his post-traumatic stress with financial support from workers’ compensation than allow his injury to cause an early end to his career.
Eduardo Contreras thought he would finally see some financial security this year. For some time, his family had struggled on an income of about $50,000. Then Contreras got a new job as a cook at a winery, with better pay and more hours. In 2019, he and his wife, a hotel housekeeper, expect to clear $80,000. With an increase in family income of more than 50 percent, they looked forward to some relief from the pressure.
Twenty Southern California hospitals have been named among the top 1,000 in the world, across 11 countries, in a list compiled for the first time by Newsweek in collaboration with Statista Inc., a global marketing research and consumer data company.
A U.S. District Court in California dismissed a lawsuit challenging CalSavers Retirement Savings program.
Homeless patients made about 100,000 visits to California hospitals in 2017, marking a 28% rise from two years earlier, according to the most recent state discharge data.
When Beverly Dunn called her new primary care doctor’s office last November to schedule an annual checkup, she assumed her Medicare coverage would pick up most of the tab.
They’re just as perplexed as the rest of us over the ever-rising cost of health care premiums. Now some states are moving to control costs of state employee health plans. And it’s triggering alarm from the hospital industry. The strategy: Use Medicare reimbursement rates to recalibrate how they pay hospitals. If the gamble pays off, more private-sector employers could start doing the same thing.
Sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name — or at the very least is familiar with your data breach incident response plan. Clients new and old alike have been trickling into law firms in anticipation (or mild apprehension) of the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA).