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.
The California Public Employees’ Retirement System is poised to raise HMO premiums for state employees an average of 7.21 percent in 2016. The move shows that rising hospital and drug costs could mean higher premiums in the private sector, too. The proposed HMO rate hike is up from a 3.9 percent hike in 2015. Premiums ...
Providing data to insurers on Covered California enrollees’ use of health care services helped to lower premiums, according to a recent study, the Sierra Sun Times reports. Details of Study For the study, researchers from UC-San Francisco, the state Department of Health Care Services and the state exchange examined data from the Office of Statewide ...
California’s health insurance exchange wants to know why you got sick this summer. With 1.4 million people enrolled, the state-run marketplace is embarking on an ambitious effort to collect insurance company data on prescriptions, doctor visits and hospital stays for every Obamacare patient. Covered California says this massive data-mining project is essential to measure the ...
Gov. Jerry Brown (D) last week issued a proclamation to convene a special legislative session on health care spending on the same day he agreed to a state budget that had many of its health-related provisions negotiated away. Financing the Medi-Cal program may not be sustainable, Brown said, given its expansion over the past two years ...
It’s still a far cry from the workers’ comp crisis of a decade ago, but workers’ comp premium volume soared nearly 11 percent last year, the third year in a row the tally has jumped by more than $1 billion. The total climbed to more than $11.4 billion last year, according to the California Workers’ ...
Medi-Cal enrollment has increased by 34% since the Affordable Care Act went into effect, leading all other Medicaid programs in the country in terms of total beneficiaries, according to data from the Kaiser Family Foundation, HealthyCal reports. Medi-Cal is California’s Medicaid program. Details of Increase in Enrollment California — one of 29 states that have ...
State officials and health care groups had mixed reactions to a budget plan (AB 93) passed by the California Legislature on Monday, Capital Public Radio’s “KXJZ News” reports (Orr, “KXJZ News,” Capital Public Radio, 6/15). For more on the Legislature’s budget plan, see today’s “Capitol Desk” post. Background Last month, Gov. Jerry Brown (D) released ...
California lawmakers are advancing legislation to add pregnancy to the list of so-called ‘life-qualifying events’ allowing people to buy health insurance outside the regular open enrollment period. U.S. Sens. Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein of California have urged the state to adopt the measure, and advocates are pressuring federal health authorities to do the same. ...
A top California regulator vowed a “deep dive” into a $1.2-billion acquisition proposed by Blue Shield of California amid criticism that the nonprofit insurer is shortchanging the public. Shelley Rouillard, director of the state Department of Managed Health Care, signaled tough scrutiny ahead for Blue Shield’s proposed purchase of Medicaid insurer Care1st Health Plan at ...
California businesses have for years complained about lawsuits related to the Americans with Disabilities Act, where plaintiffs visit their stores or restaurants and then demand financial damages after finding oftentimes technical violations of the accessibility rules. At one point last year, 20-some businesses in thedowntown area of one northern California city were hit with such ...