This week, the California Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) released an analysis on the state’s Medi-Cal budget for 2020-21 and 2021-22, as well as an analysis of California Advancing and Innovating Medi-Cal (CalAIM) financing issues. Brief summaries of these reports are provided below: Medi-Cal Budget Analysis The LAO’s analysis assesses major adjustments to the Medi-Cal budget…
Read More »California Health Policy Strategies (CHPS) recently issued a policy brief providing an overview of the California Department of Health Care Services’ (DHCS) California Advancing and Innovating Medi-Cal (CalAIM) implications for reentry and justice-involved populations. CHPS details the background of the Newsom Administration’s CalAIM proposal and discusses potential changes in health services delivery and financing for…
Read More »This week, the California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) announced it is delaying the planned go-live implementation date of April 1, 2021, for Medi-Cal Rx due to the need to review new conflict avoidance protocols submitted by the project’s contracted vendor, Magellan Health. Recall, the Medi-Cal Rx initiative seeks to transition all Medi-Cal pharmacy…
Read More »On Thursday, Governor Gavin Newsom announced the appointment of Rohan Radhakrishna, MD, MPH as the Deputy Director of the Office of Health Equity at the California Department of Public Health (CDPH). Radhakrishna has served as the co-chair of the Health Equity Committee of the California Conference of Local Health Officers (CCLHO) since 2019 and the…
Read More »Today, President Joseph R. Biden announced his nomination of Chiquita Brooks-LaSure as the Administrator of the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Brooks-LaSure is currently the Managing Director at Manatt. She is a former policy official who played a key role in the development and implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and…
Read More »Recently, the California Budget & Policy Center issued its report, “Confronting Racism: Overcoming COVID-19 and Advancing Health Equity.” The report assesses the inequities unveiled during the COVID-19 pandemic, including racism’s impact on the health of children, families, and individuals, the COVID-19’s disproportionate impact on communities of color, and pandemic-induced economic hardship. The report calls on…
Read More »This week, the California State Senate and Assembly convened several hearings to examine the state’s rollout and administration of COVID-19 vaccines, as well as consider investments for the state’s public health infrastructure. Below, we detail each of the hearings. Assembly Sub. 1 Assesses Vaccine Administration, Hears CHEAC Budget Requests On Monday, the Assembly Budget Subcommittee…
Read More »On Tuesday, the Joint Legislative Budget Committee (JLBC) notified the California Department of Finance (DOF) of its approval of the Newsom Administration’s proposal to allocate nearly $1.2 billion in unanticipated federal funds to local health departments to support ongoing response activities to the COVID-19 pandemic. Recall, approximately $1.7 billion in Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity (ELC)…
Read More »This week, the Biden-Harris Administration announced several key developments in the federal government’s response efforts related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Below, we highlight these activities: Purchase of Additional Vaccines: On Thursday, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Department of Defense (DoD) purchased an additional 100 million doses each of COVID-19…
Read More »This week, the California Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) published a report providing an overview of the state’s California Advancing and Innovating Medi-Cal (CalAIM) proposal, a sweeping set of reforms to expand, transform, and streamline Medi-Cal service delivery and financing. This week’s report from the LAO is the first in a series addressing different components of…
Read More »