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.
Health officials in Los Angeles County now strongly recommend that people wear masks indoors in public places — regardless of their vaccination status — to prevent the spread of the highly transmissible delta variant of the coronavirus. The move comes two weeks after Gov. Gavin Newsom reopened California and lifted the statewide mask mandate. The LA ...
Over the next month, California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara will review rates recommended by the Workers Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau, a nonprofit which evaluates trends, including the costs of potential claims.
A 2017 California law that banned drugmaker copay coupons failed to increase the use of generic drugs, according to a study from Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. The study, published June 15 in JAMA, found that the law did not meet its goal to boost use of generic drugs instead of patients’ relying on copay coupons ...
The highly infectious delta coronavirus variant is rising fast in California, with cases more than doubling in the past month and tripling in one Bay Area county, according to genomic sequencing results reported by state and local public health departments. The first California cases of delta, a variant that emerged in India, were reported in ...
This week, the Standards Board of the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) adopted revisions to the COVID-19 emergency workplace rules. The changes approved at the Standards Board’s June 17 meeting make Cal/OSHA’s COVID-19 Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) more consistent with face mask guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and California ...
My employee used most of her COVID-19 Supplemental Paid Sick Leave over the last couple of weeks. Now she wants to take a week’s vacation. Can I deny the vacation request since several other employees in that department, who have been working lots of extra hours to cover her missed shifts, also want to take ...
California, the first state in America to put in place a coronavirus lockdown, has turned a page on the pandemic. The nation’s most populated state lifted most of its restrictions Tuesday, meaning no more state rules on social distancing or capacity limits at restaurants, bars, supermarkets, gyms, stadiums or anywhere else.
Fully vaccinated workers in California may be able to remove masks at work this week if a state safety board approves a proposal by the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health, or Cal/OSHA.
None of us imagined at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic that we would continue to be working virtually over a year later. Even with the tier restrictions lifting here in Orange County and throughout the state, we have faced a point where decisions are being made to either return our workforce in-person, continue to work from home, or in many cases, implement some sort of hybrid arrangement.
The pandemic shackles on California’s economy will have officially lasted 452 days — from a full lockdown starting in March 2020 to an all-but-reopened business world after June 15. The economic toll of strict mandates to slow the spread of COVID-19 was high. For years to come, there will be grand debates over the government’s ...