54% of Calif. Doctors Accepted New Medicaid Patients in 2013 About 54% of physicians in California said they were accepting new Medicaid patients in 2013 — the second-lowest rate among all U.S. states, according to a new CDC report, the Newark Star-Ledger reports (Livio, Newark Star-Ledger, 3/31). For the report — conducted between February 2013… Continue reading California Doctors Accepted New Medicaid

Original article published by David Gorn of California Healthline Zelda Gamble of Long Beach, 74, has diabetes, high blood pressure and severe rheumatoid arthritis that keeps her confined to a motorized wheelchair all day. Gamble is one of roughly 12,000 frail seniors across California who depend on the Multipurpose Senior Services Program, or MSSP, for… Continue reading If California Ends Coordinated Care Initiative, What Happens to Frail Senior Duals?

By the San Jose Mercury News A fleet of autonomous mobile robots programmed to transport items such as meals, medications, linens and lab specimens will begin operating around the clock Sunday when the new University of California at San Francisco’s Medical Center at Mission Bay opens to the public. The robots, which resemble small, self-guided… Continue reading World’s Largest Fleet of Automated Robots to Deploy at UCSF Mission Bay Medical Center

By David Gorn for California Healthline Sacramento Bureau Nadereh Pourat, director of research at the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, gives an involuntary gasp when she’s asked where California’s health care system would be without the reforms and changes of the past five years. “It’s not fathomable,” Pourat said. “I don’t know where we… Continue reading Five Years of California Health Reform: ‘A Tremendous Designed Experiment’

By David Gorn for California Healthline State officials are in the midst of dropping a large number of Medi-Cal beneficiaries. It’s the Medi-Cal renewal process — every year, beneficiaries are required to re-enroll to continue receiving the benefit. This year, that process potentially could result in millions of beneficiaries exiting the program. Last week the Department… Continue reading One Million Medi-Cal Renewals Up Every Month, Termination Data ‘Not Available’

From California Healthline California lawmakers are considering a bill (AB 927) that aims to improve oversight and transparency of the state’s nursing home industry, the Sacramento Bee reports. The legislation comes after a Bee investigation last year found that California consumers lack information about the ownership and performance of many California nursing homes (Lundstrom,Sacramento Bee,… Continue reading Bill Aims To Boost Transparency, Oversight of Calif. Nursing Homes

By Julie Small for KQED’s The California Report Medi-Cal — the public health insurance program for low-income Californians — is growing faster under federal health care reform than the state expected. Twelve million residents — nearly a third of the state’s population — now rely on Medi-Cal, and that’s increased pressure to find more doctors willing… Continue reading More Pressure on Providers in Face of Medi-Cal Expansion

By California Healthline California has more highly rated hospitals than any other state, based on performance metrics for various common conditions and procedures, according to Healthgrades’ annual list of the top 100 hospitals released Tuesday, FierceHealthcare reports (Budryk,FierceHealthcare, 2/24). Details of List To be eligible for consideration, hospitals had to have sufficient data to assess… Continue reading California Hospitals Dominate Healthgrades’ List of Top Facilities

By Bob Herman for Modern Healthcare The CMS plans to more closely monitor Medicare Advantage insurers’ provider networks and may fine or otherwise sanction plans that don’t accurately show which doctors are available at in-network prices. New provisions related to provider networks and directories were included in the agency’s proposed 2016 rate notice (PDF), released… Continue reading Medicare May Penalize Advantage Plans for Faulty Provider Lists

In this article, originally published by Kaiser Health News, learn about the uninsured tax penalty that many are unaware of.