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.
As pandemic-era policies come to an end, tens of thousands of Southern Californians are expected to lose out on Medi-Cal, California’s Medicaid program, come April. Experts estimate about 330,000 people in Los Angeles County and approximately 160,000 in Orange County will be ineligible for Medi-Cal in April when states resume the redetermination process. The number of ...
A doctor found cysts in Lilia Becerril’s right breast five years ago, but the 51-year-old lacks health insurance. She said she can’t afford the imaging to find out if they’re cancerous. Becerril earns about $52,000 a year at a nonprofit in California’s Central Valley, putting her and her husband, Armando, at more than double the ...
The state Supreme Court rejected a challenge Wednesday to a ruling that said school districts in California cannot require their students to be vaccinated against COVID-19 because only the state government can issue such a mandate. While public health agencies have recommended the vaccinations for children as young as 6 months old, legislation calling for ...
It looks like California’s single-payer dreams will be delayed at least another year. After suffering a devastating blow in the Capitol last winter, advocates had been eager to reintroduce legislation that would create a first-in-the nation, state-run health care system.
Union-aligned Democrats were set to introduce legislation Wednesday mandating a statewide $25 minimum wage for health workers and support staffers, likely setting up a pitched battle with hospitals, nursing homes, and dialysis clinics. State Sen. María Elena Durazo’s bill would require health facilities and home health agencies to give raises to many support employees, including ...
About four years ago, Dr. Gene Dorio sat on the ethics committee of a Southern California hospital whose administrators insisted they could decide whether to disconnect a ventilator from an unconscious patient — even though the man’s wife and adult children wanted to continue life support. The problem, Dorio told California lawmakers last year, was ...
The total number of coronavirus cases reported in California has topped 12 million. That milestone — reached last week, according to data compiled by The Times — comes as California is seeing increased circulation of the Omicron subvariant XBB.1.5, which has been described as perhaps the most infectious strain of the coronavirus. But in many respects, the ...
The Pill Club, an online women’s pharmacy, has reached an $18.3 million settlement with California authorities over claims it defrauded the state’s Medicaid program by prescribing birth control pills without adequate consultation and shipping tens of thousands of female condoms to customers who didn’t want them. Attorney General Rob Bonta announced the agreement Tuesday, a ...
Agents are still required to earn at least three hours of Ethics CE training to renew a license, but under the new requirements, one of those hours must now focus entirely on fraud prevention. The CDI has developed its own one-hour CE course to satisfy this requirement. Taking the CDI course is the only way to earn this hour of CE.
As many diabetics across the Golden State struggle with insulin costs, California’s efforts to make the medication more affordable have yet to yield results. This year, lawmakers will revisit legislation that would address at least one piece of the affordability puzzle.