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.
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.
Californians who lost the option to automatically re-enroll in an Affordable Care Act exchange plan were less likely to hold on to their insurance coverage than households that could enroll automatically, according to a study published Monday in JAMA Internal Medicine.
Twenty-five Southern California doctors and others are accused of billing Medicare and other health plans for $150 million in fraudulent charges.
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.
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.
In the battle over what Congress should do to end surprise medical bills, both sides of the debate are pointing to California's experience—and drawing different conclusions. A law enacted in September 2016 put a cap on out-of-network charges, tied either to the median in-network contracted rates with insurers or 125% of Medicare—whichever is higher.
Eight months ago, Gov. Gavin Newsom released a plan to lower the state’s prescription drug costs. The central idea: By consolidating the market power of state agencies into one statewide pool, California could gain greater leverage to negotiate with drugmakers.
Looking back on my own fight with addiction, I now know that what I needed was long-term, qualified and safe care. A professional setting to be housed, receive medical care, and access peer support. However, too many patients fall prey to treatment facilities that are more interested in bilking insurance companies than in providing the support they need to enter and sustain long-term recovery.
One day after her 80-year-old mother started hospice care at home last August, Tracy Sellers found herself racing into an emergency room, pushing a wheelchair carrying her mother.