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Industry Updates

This broad category includes articles concerning health insurance costs, carrier and health plan news, changing benefits technology, and surveys by the Kaiser Family Foundation and others on employee benefits.

California Universal Mask Mandate Starts. What Are The Exceptions And When Does It End?

California’s statewide mask mandate goes into effect Wednesday. For those in the Golden State, this means everyone, vaccinated and unvaccinated, must wear a face covering in indoor public spaces — for the most part.

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Looming Medicare Cuts are Unsustainable and Threaten Access to Care

The California Medical Association (CMA) and the California Hospital Association (CHA) today sent a joint letter to the California Congressional Delegation, urging immediate action to eliminate or delay the Medicare payment cuts that are scheduled to go into effect on January 1, 2022. “California’s hospitals and physicians continue to provide critical health services to their patients and ...

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Federal Appeals Court Lifts Injunction On San Diego Schools’ COVID Vaccine Mandate

The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals voted on Saturday to lift a temporary injunction that it had placed on the San Diego Unified School District’s student COVID-19 vaccine mandate. The rare weekend decision, reached by a 2-1 vote, lifts the injunction the court had placed on the mandate about a week ago. Judges had ...

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Businesses Luring Employees Along With Customers This Season

The Hampton Inn in Folsom, California, has 147 rooms, but General Manager Enid Baldock could only rent 117 of them recently because she did not have enough workers to clean them.

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Enforcement Begins Today For L.A.’s COVID-19 Vaccine Requirements

After a multi-week ramp-up, Los Angeles will now enforce its mandate that patrons prove they’ve been vaccinated against COVID-19 as a condition of entering a host of indoor businesses. The city’s requirement — which applies to indoor restaurants, movie theaters, hair and nail salons, coffee shops, gyms, museums, bowling alleys and performance venues, among other ...

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Supply Chain Woes Mean Shortages Of Critical Medical Devices In California

When Henry Genung was 4 months old, doctors cut a hole in his windpipe and inserted a tube to help him breathe. Born with a rare genetic mutation that blocked his upper airway, Henry, who is now 18 months old, will need the tube for several more years. For three months, Henry hasn’t had a ...

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California Joins States Trying to Shorten Wait Times for Mental Health Care

When Greta Christina fell into a deep depression five years ago, she called up her therapist in San Francisco. She’d had a great connection with the provider when she needed therapy in the past. She was delighted to learn that he was now “in network” with her insurance company, meaning she wouldn’t have to pay ...

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Covered California Begins Open Enrollment Period For 2022

Open enrollment for the nation’s largest state-run health insurance marketplace began Monday and runs through the end of January. Covered California sells individual health insurance plans to people who can’t get coverage through their job. Some people, depending on how much money they make, are eligible for deep discounts on their monthly premiums. Even families ...

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California AHU Submits Testimony to Single-Payer Commission

The California Association of Health Underwriters recently submitted comments to the Healthy California For All Commission regarding several health insurance policy areas that the state seeks to regulate. The stated goal of the Healthy California For All Commission is to “develop a plan for advancing progress toward achieving a health care delivery system for California that provides ...

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California’s Unemployment Fraud Reaches At Least $20 Billion

California has given away at least $20 billion to criminals in the form of fraudulent unemployment benefits, state officials said Monday, confirming a number smaller than originally feared but one that still accounts for more than 11% of all benefits paid since the start of the pandemic.

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