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 spring coronavirus swell that’s turning into the summer coronavirus surge is starting to result in more hospital admissions, although the amount of serious illness is still far less than before widespread vaccination.
The number of coronavirus cases reported in California is on the brink of crossing 10 million, a milestone that probably undercounts the total significantly yet still carries an increasing sense of inevitability.
This week the Legislature passed, and the Governor signed a $300 billion state budget that includes a number of targeted tax benefits for businesses, plus one-time increases in other areas.
Unless a state specifically states in its laws that it intends to apply those laws across state borders, then the law applies only to individuals within the state.
This summer, the U.S. Supreme Court has made a number of high-profile decisions across many complex policy issues. Nestled among these high-profile decisions is yet another case that affects California law.
Hospitals, public health agencies and other providers have no systematic way to share patient data among themselves, limiting their ability to monitor trends and work efficiently. Under the state’s new data-sharing requirement, a doctor or case worker could get immediate access to a patient’s full medical history, and patients could view their own records easily.
John Word was recognized Monday night as one of two health insurance industry “persons of the year” and recipient of the 2022 Harold R. Gordon Memorial Award. John was selected by a committee of past NAHU award recipients who carefully review nominees from across the country nominated for their contributions to the industry.
It would have significantly increased workers’ compensation costs for public and private hospitals by presuming certain diseases and injuries are caused by the workplace and established an extremely concerning precedent for expanding presumptions into the private sector.
California will become the first state to remove immigration status as a barrier to health care, making all low-income undocumented residents eligible for state-subsidized insurance regardless of age. Gov. Gavin Newsom late Sunday announced a budget deal he struck with the Legislature included a new Medi-Cal expansion that would cover more undocumented adults. The program’s ...
An important provision in the Consolidated Appropriations Act (CAA) of 2021 affecting insurance brokers is a federal commission disclosure requirement. The law, which took effect on December 27, 2021, requires brokers and consultants to disclose expected commissions, in writing, to their insurance clients in advance of a new sale, renewal, or change to a health ...