The California Legislature is in full swing as indicated by this week’s significant number of amendments to bills, policy committee hearings, and budget activities. The next several weeks are expected to be very busy with additional bill hearings and amendments prior to the Legislature’s 10-day Spring Recess that begins on April 11. This week’s CHEAC…
Read More »On Thursday, the Senate Budget & Fiscal Review Subcommittee No. 3 on Health and Human Services convened to hear items under the Department of Managed Health Care (DMHC) and the Department of Health Care Services (DHCS). Timely Access and Prescription Drug Cost Transparency Report. DMHC discussed the Timely Access Reports, noting that since 2013, DHMC…
Read More »The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute this week released the 2019 County Health Rankings & Roadmap Report, which assesses the health status of all counties in the United States. The Rankings help counties understand what influences how healthy residents are and how long they will live. By…
Read More »The Insure the Uninsured Project (ITUP) released a 2019 update to their report on county medically indigent programs (MIA) on Thursday. This report is intended to provide an overview, background, and history of county MIA programs, as well as financing and current challenges with programs. Included in this year’s update is a conclusion that county…
Read More »This week, the Insure the Uninsured Project (ITUP) published two major briefs on the future of health reform in California: “Mapping the Future of Medi-Cal” and “Mapping the Future of Individual Health Insurance.” Both reports offer basic background information and focus on significant upcoming issues likely to engage policymakers and stakeholders over the coming years….
Read More »The California Budget & Policy Center (CBPC) this week released a data brief on undocumented California adults and health coverage, finding that nearly nine in 10 undocumented adults with low incomes lack coverage. Only approximately three percent of undocumented low-income adults had public coverage and approximately seven percent had private coverage; the remaining approximately 89…
Read More »This week, the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) launched a new online resource entitled “Opioid Epidemic Toolkit for Local Health Departments.” NACCO is collecting resources to support local opioid overdose prevention and response efforts as part of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)-funded Local Opioid Overdose Prevention and…
Read More »On Wednesday, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) issued a report on opioid use disorder (OUD) treatment options, finding that despite the fact that the three U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved medications are safe and effective, most individuals who could benefit from the treatments do not receive them. Further, the report…
Read More »The California Legislature continues to ramp up its hearing activities with a considerable amount of bills set for their first policy committee hearings over the coming weeks. Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon announced the appointment of Assembly Member Eloise Gómez Reyes as acting chair of the Assembly Budget Subcommittee No. 1 on Health and Human Services…
Read More »The Senate and Assembly Health Committees convened a joint hearing on Wednesday entitled “Increasing Access to Treatment and Services in Response to the Opioid Crisis.” The hearing featured various panels highlighting the Drug Medi-Cal Organized Delivery System (DMC-ODS) pilots, the California Hub & Spoke System (CA H&SS), and other programmatic efforts underway in California to…
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