Posts Tagged: Kaiser

Medi-Cal shift could roil coverage for low-income Californians

A man receives a one-shot vaccination against COVID-19 in Covina. (Photo: Ringo Chiu, via Shutterstock)

by BERNARD J. WOLFSON posted 09.26.2022

Almost 2 million of California’s poorest and most medically fragile residents may have to switch health insurers as a result of a new strategy by the state to improve care in its Medicaid program. A first-ever statewide contracting competition to participate in the program, known as Medi-Cal, required commercial managed-care plans to rebid for their contracts and compete against others hoping to take those contracts away.

OPINION: Currently, Kaiser Permanente subcontracts across parts of the state to provide Medi-Cal coverage. We are required to pay upwards of $200 million in administrative fees. This state contract allows us to put that money instead into more and better care for Medi-Cal members and the into communities that we serve.

What are the impacts of Kaiser’s no-bid contract on Medi-Cal?

The Kaiser Permanente hospital in San Diego, a 617,000-square foot facility. (Photo: Roaming Panda Photos)

by JARROD McNAUGHTON posted 05.09.2022

OPINION: In giving private health care giant Kaiser Permanente a broad, no-bid Medi-Cal contract that is light on detail, the state could unwind over 40 years of locally driven health care coordination and collaboration for the most vulnerable among us.

Nurses — backed by Newsom — ramp up fight for universal health care

Nurses and physicians in a busy hospital corridor. (Photo: Monkey Business Images)

by LISA RENNER posted 01.31.2018

The California Nurses Association is still committed to pushing through its controversial universal health care bill despite stiff opposition from the Democratic Assembly Speaker and medical professional organizations. The union has a strong ally in front-runner gubernatorial candidate Gavin Newsom, who says that a single-payer system as proposed in Senate Bill 562 is the best way to provide health care to all.

California inconsistently enforces hospital privacy laws

An elderly patient in a wheelchair receiving care at a California hospital. (Photo: bikeriderlondon, via shutterstock)

by CHARLES ORNSTEIN posted 01.03.2016

In 2008, outraged by a string of snooping incidents involving celebrities’ medical records, California legislators passed a groundbreaking law that compelled hospitals to quickly report patient privacy breaches and gave the state power to levy fines for such violations. But a ProPublica analysis of state data shows enforcement has been inconsistent.

Drug-cost disclosure hits obstacle

Pharmaceuticals and money -- elements in the debate over a cost-disclosure bill. (Photo: O.S. Fisher, Shutterstock)

by ALVIN CHEN posted 06.10.2015

An attempt to force drug makers to disclose their costs and profits for drugs that sell wholesale for more than $10,000 annually was derailed in the Legislature, facing strong opposition from an industry targeting similar measures in other states. The forces battling over the bill include some of the most powerful in California.

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

Led by medical insurers, opponents of two November ballot initiatives aimed at regulating insurance rates, raising the limits on pain-and-suffering awards and requiring doctors to be drug tested have raised nearly $92 million from their largest donors, according to figures compiled by the state’s political watchdog.

How workers’ comp failed injured nurse

by DEBBYE MAZZUCCA posted 11.03.2013

OPINION: Little did I know that when I became disabled myself, my employer and its workers’ compensation insurance carrier would care so little about me.

“The Guardian Scholars program helped me share my story with other foster youth. No one really understands what we go through except other foster youth. This program helped me psychologically by helping me learn that there are people who do understand. I didn’t know how I would be able to afford college but the Guardian Scholars program has helped me financially through scholarships that are only available to Guardian Scholars. Joy Salvetti, the program’s director, was like a parent to me. She provided the warmth and the help I needed.