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.
Gov. Gavin Newsom appointed Richard “Fig” Figueroa to be the acting director of DHCS. He takes over in the interim from Jennifer Kent, who announced her resignation last week.
Medicare cut payments to 2,583 hospitals Tuesday, continuing the Affordable Care Act’s eight-year campaign to financially pressure hospitals into reducing the number of patients who return for a second stay within a month.
Twenty-five Southern California doctors and others are accused of billing Medicare and other health plans for $150 million in fraudulent charges.
Most everyone who heard Gov. Gavin Newsom’s words had the same reaction: He’s finally on board.
It’s an employee’s market, prompting many employers to increase pay and offer richer benefits to keep talented workers from defecting, according to Gallagher’s 2019 Benefits Strategy & Benchmarking Survey.
California’s health care services director announced her resignation Tuesday, a move that came after she mocked opponents of mandatory childhood vaccinations as “flat-earthers” on social media.
The author of a bill to clamp down on school vaccine exemptions agreed to scale back parts of it under a deal reached Friday with Gov. Gavin Newsom following a chaotic week of negotiations. But their pact was quickly met with fierce opposition from protesters who had hoped the governor’s apprehension signaled trouble for Senate Bill 276.
Whether Congress will act this year to address the affordability of prescription drugs — a high priority among voters — remains uncertain. But states aren’t waiting.
Democratic legislators are advancing a bill that aims to provide free health care to low-income undocumented seniors — an idea that they floated earlier this year, but which failed to make it into the state budget because of concerns over its cost.
Despite 52 amendments added to the legislation just last week, the California Senate voted 21-19 on Sept. 9 to accept the changes and approve A.B. 290, a bill aimed at restricting dialysis provider profits in the state and limiting the use of third-party payers, like the American Kidney Fund.