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 section of the wall where Providence Speech and Hearing Center in Orange honors its donors is reserved for a select few “Giant Sequoias” of generosity. Among them are John M. Word III and Edward “Rusty” Brown Jr. The founders of The Word & Brown Cos., an innovator in the area of insurance services and ...
Half of California’s undocumented immigrants — about 1.4 million — have incomes low enough to qualify for full Medi-Cal benefits should California legislative proposals to offer coverage to the undocumented ever be enacted. That is among the key findings of a Public Policy Institute of California report released Monday night which examines current policy options ...
Several California hospitals were included in Becker’s Hospital Review‘s list of 100 facilities with “great” cardiovascular programs,Becker’s Hospital Review reports. Details of List For the list, Becker‘s editorial staffers reviewed various ranking and award agencies, including: Blue Distinction Centers for Cardiac Care; CareChex’s rankings for cardiac care; Healthgrades cardiology awards; The Society of Thoracic Surgeons’ ...
California has seen the largest decline in the number of uninsured children since the Affordable Care Act took effect, according to a report by Georgetown University’s Center for Children and Families, the Public News Service reports (Potter, Public News Service, 10/29). The report was based on data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey ...
After months of debate last year, Los Angeles County officials agreed to pay for 146,000 people in the country illegally to receive medical care through the public health system. More than a year later, however, officials have fallen about 11,000 short of that target, and left more than $20 million of their budget unspent. County ...
Covered California still faces major challenges in enrolling African-Americans and Latinos as the state’s health insurance exchange launches its third open enrollment period Sunday. “We know we’ve come up short in who’s enrolled today,” Covered California Executive Director Peter Lee said at a recent media briefing on the exchange’s marketing and outreach plans. “Of those ...
California and the federal government agreed in concept Saturday on a $6.2-billion deal to reform the Medicaid program and to help pay for care of the low-income population. The largest share of the funds – nearly $3.3 billion – is aimed at helping public hospitals improve the safety and quality of patient care. The plan, ...
We know obesity increases your risk of having high blood pressure, getting diabetes and being diagnosed with certain cancers. Now it turns out it can also increase costs for your state government. A study published Monday in the journal Health Affairs found that medical care associated with severe obesity cost state-run health programs $8 billion in 2013. California’s program for the ...
The skyrocketing cost of prescription drugs — already a hot issue on the U.S. presidential campaign trail — may be headed to California’s statewide ballot next fall. Advocates of a proposed measure that would require state programs to pay no more for prescription drugs than prices negotiated by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs said ...
The head of California’s health insurance exchange toured Los Angeles by bus Sunday, seeking to publicize the Affordable Care Act’s potential benefits among Southern Californians, many of them Latino, who officials say have failed to take advantage of the law. On the first day of this year’s open-enrollment period for federally subsidized health plans, the ...