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.
A new poll suggests widespread support for a measure headed for the 2016 ballot that would cap prescription drug prices paid by state programs. The California Drug Price Act would prohibit the state from using taxpayer money to pay more for any prescription drug than the amount paid by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. ...
If you work at a business with 50 or fewer employees, watch out for grandma this year. By that, we mean if the company has a “grandmothered” health plan, you may be in for some changes in 2016. Grandmothered is the term insurance agents and brokers have been using for pre-Obamacare policies that were allowed ...
It's survived an IT meltdown and attempts to kill it in the Legislature. It's now facing the loss of two insurance carriers and an effort to constitutionally ban it.
Dignity Health and Kaiser Permanente have agreed to joint ownership of St. Joseph’s Medical Center in Stockton. Dignity Health will keep an 80 percent ownership interest in the hospital and related operations. Kaiser will buy a 20 percent interest, the two companies announced Monday. The deal is expected to close in mid-2016. The agreement creates ...
Half of California’s undocumented immigrants — about 1.4 million — have incomes low enough to qualify for full Medi-Cal benefits should California legislative proposals to offer coverage to the undocumented ever be enacted. That is among the key findings of a Public Policy Institute of California report released Monday night which examines current policy options ...
California has seen the largest decline in the number of uninsured children since the Affordable Care Act took effect, according to a report by Georgetown University’s Center for Children and Families, the Public News Service reports (Potter, Public News Service, 10/29). The report was based on data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey ...
After months of debate last year, Los Angeles County officials agreed to pay for 146,000 people in the country illegally to receive medical care through the public health system. More than a year later, however, officials have fallen about 11,000 short of that target, and left more than $20 million of their budget unspent. County ...
Covered California still faces major challenges in enrolling African-Americans and Latinos as the state’s health insurance exchange launches its third open enrollment period Sunday. “We know we’ve come up short in who’s enrolled today,” Covered California Executive Director Peter Lee said at a recent media briefing on the exchange’s marketing and outreach plans. “Of those ...
California and the federal government agreed in concept Saturday on a $6.2-billion deal to reform the Medicaid program and to help pay for care of the low-income population. The largest share of the funds – nearly $3.3 billion – is aimed at helping public hospitals improve the safety and quality of patient care. The plan, ...
We know obesity increases your risk of having high blood pressure, getting diabetes and being diagnosed with certain cancers. Now it turns out it can also increase costs for your state government. A study published Monday in the journal Health Affairs found that medical care associated with severe obesity cost state-run health programs $8 billion in 2013. California’s program for the ...