The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is releasing data publicly for the first time on mergers, acquisitions, consolidations, and changes of ownership from 2016-2022 for hospitals and nursing homes enrolled in Medicare. According to HHS, the data will allow researchers, state and federal enforcement agencies,…
Read More »The California Department of Public Health (CDPH) this week announced it has awarded the 2021 Beverlee A. Myers Award for Excellence in Public Health, its highest and most prestigious award, to California Local Public Health Directors and California Local Public Health Officers. Established in 1993 in honor of the late Beverlee A. Myers, the award…
Read More »This week featured a flurry of activities in and around the State Capitol with numerous lengthy policy committee hearings, floor debate, and several demonstrations as lawmakers returned to Sacramento from their 10-day Spring Recess. A series of notable measures, including those related to COVID-19, reproductive health, criminal justice, and health coverage, were considered by lawmakers…
Read More »This week, the California Department of Finance (DOF) issued its April 2022 Finance Bulletin, detailing the latest economic conditions of the state. Of note, DOF indicates that while Cash receipts for the month of March 2022 were $199 million below the forecast of $21.047 billion, preliminary General Fund agency cash receipts for the first nine…
Read More »This week, Governor Gavin Newsom announced appointments to two notable posts within the Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) and Department of Health Care Access and Information (HCAI). These include: Tracy Arnold has been appointed Assistant Director at the California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS). Arnold has served as Chief Deputy Cabinet Secretary in…
Read More »The Healthy California for All Commission, established as part of the 2019 Budget Act, this week issued its final report on unified health system financing. The report details the concept of unified financing as a statewide system to arrange, pay for, and assure health care in which all residents are entitled to receive a standard…
Read More »A recent poll from the University of California, Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies (IGS) found that a two-thirds majority describes both extreme heat (64 percent) and air pollution (63 percent) as serious threats to their own and their family’s health and safety. Relative to extreme heat, wide partisan differences in opinions about the seriousness of…
Read More »Less than one week after federal agencies extended its mandatefor face coverings on public transportation and transportation hubs, a Florida federal judge struck down the requirement. Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle, in her 59-page ruling, invalidated the mask requirement on several grounds, including that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) exceeded its legal…
Read More »This week, the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) announced it has partnered with WhatsApp to launch Spanish- and English-language chatbots to provide accurate information on COVID-19, including information about vaccines. According to CDPH, and in part thanks to a partnership with Meta, California becomes the first state in the country to launch a tool…
Read More »Two new reports included in this week’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) explored death rates in the U.S., finding persistent disparities between certain racial and ethnic minority groups. The first report provides an overview of provisional U.S. mortality data for 2021, including a comparison…
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