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.
California now has a new pet health insurance law that could serve as a laboratory showing what happens when the government adds coverage requirements to what has been a largely unrelated market. Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, today signed a pet insurance bill introduced by state Sen. Steven Glazer, D-Orinda, Calif., that’s based heavily on a model developed by the ...
Californians with medical debt will no longer have to worry about unpaid medical bills showing up on their credit reports under legislation signed Tuesday by Gov. Gavin Newsom, adding the nation’s most populous state to a growing effort to protect consumers squeezed by unaffordable medical bills. The bill, by Sen. Monique Limón (D-Santa Barbara) and backed by ...
A seemingly innocuous proposal to offer scholarships for mental health workers in California’s new court-ordered treatment program has sparked debate over whether the state should prioritize that program or tackle a wider labor shortage in behavioral health services. Nine counties have begun rolling out the Community Assistance, Recovery, and Empowerment Act, which Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) ...
California Gov. Gavin Newsom will soon decide whether the most populous U.S. state will join 25 others in regulating the middlemen known as pharmacy benefit managers, or PBMs, whom many policymakers blame for the soaring cost of prescription drugs. PBMs have been under fire for years for alleged profiteering and anticompetitive conduct, but efforts to ...
Local pharmacies and patient groups like it. Health insurance and benefits groups predict it will drive up costs.
Dr. Mark Ghaly is stepping down as head of the California Health and Human Services Agency after an eventful tenure that included the eruption of the COVID-19 pandemic, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Friday. Newsom called Ghaly “a driving force for transformative changes to make healthcare more affordable and accessible,” whose leadership during the pandemic “saved ...
The Word & Brown Companies today was named in the annual Best Places to Work in Insurance program, which recognizes employers for their outstanding performance in establishing workplaces where employees can thrive, enjoy their work, and help their companies grow.
The summer surge of the coronavirus subvariants nicknamed FLiRT has given way to ever more contagious strains, a key reason behind the current high levels of COVID in California and nationwide. And doctors and scientists are keeping an eye on yet another subvariant — XEC — that could surpass the latest hyperinfectious subvariant, KP.3.1.1, now thought to be the most ...
California lawmakers are debating whether to go where Congress won't and pass legislation that would give the state the ability to block private equity acquisitions of health care facilities or providers.
The California Legislature is in its (sometimes) frantic final week, racing to pass bills by the Saturday deadline. Monday, lawmakers pulled some last-minute maneuvering to extend the time allowed for floor amendments.