Posts Tagged: insurers
News
Landmark legislation to improve California’s notoriously fractured mental-health system has been passed and sent to the governor in the waning days of a chaotic legislative session disrupted by the COVID pandemic. “This package of legislation is a game-changer,” said Maggie Merritt, executive director of the Steinberg Institute.
Opinion
OPINION: It’s never a good idea when insurers cut costs by interfering in the decision-making process between patients and their doctor. But during a national pandemic, it’s a particularly bad idea. I am thinking specifically of an insurance strategy called step therapy.
Recent News
The Madera patient says he likes his Kaiser doctor and has no desire to switch to publicly funded Medicare, even though he qualifies. But if Senate Bill 1156 is approved, Adames likely wouldn’t get that choice. The bill would require that patients like him receiving third-party assistance would either need to enroll in Medicare or Medi-Cal (for those who are low income), or if they choose to stay on private insurance, they will only receive reimbursement at Medicare or Medi-Cal’s much lower rates.
Opinion
OPINION: My insurance company has entirely ignored my doctors’ medical expertise and flatly refused to pay for the physician-prescribed treatment. I’ve learned that my plight is not unique, that there is a systematic failure to hold insurers accountable for unfair delays and inappropriate denials of recommended cancer care. California’s insurance commissioner, Dave Jones, can fix this.
Opinion
OPINION: For the millions of Californians living with chronic health conditions like heart disease, cancer, diabetes, asthma and arthritis, securing adequate and affordable health care coverage can be a challenging feat.
Opinion
OPINION: The public debate around the cost of prescription drugs has unfairly turned on the one player in the system reducing drug costs – pharmacy benefit managers or PBMs.
News
Voters may be apathetic on Election Day, but there are some people in California who are excited indeed about the ballot – those who have a big pocketbook interest in the outcome. Campaign spending on six ballot propositions has approached a quarter-billion dollars – a hefty price tag, even in California
News
A state legislative committee has ordered an audit of provider directories that are given to people in California’s low-income health program, after reports of major inaccuracies. The audit will examine the managed-care directories, whether they list enough doctors who are accepting new patients and whether state regulators have done their jobs overseeing that aspect of the Medi-Cal program.
News
It’s on the ballot but off the public’s radar, and months before Election Day the campaign cash already is piling up — $44 million and counting — for what is certain to be a massive TV blitz in the fall between doctors, lawyers and insurers.
Opinion
OPINION: Occasionally, a patient can find the information on the individual insurer website, but the formularies are displayed differently with each plan, making it difficult to compare plans to each other. In addition, there is no way to compare out-of-pocket costs.
The state Capitol in Sacramento, the seat of California government. (Photo: Always Wanderlust, via Shutterstock)
