This week, the Senate Rules Committee held a hearing to review the appointment of three nominees from Governor Newsom: California Health and Human Services Agency (CalHHS) Undersecretary Marko Mijic, CalHHS Deputy Secretary for Program and Fiscal Affairs Brendan McCarthy, and Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) Director Michelle Baass. Members of the committee questioned all…
Read More »The California Department of Public Health (CDPH) this week transitioned from publicly reporting COVID-19 data on a daily basis to two days per week. Reporting on COVID-19 cases, test positivity, hospitalizations, ICU numbers and availability, deaths, and vaccine coverage will now be reported on CDPH’s public dashboards only on Tuesdays and Fridays.
Read More »This week, the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) updated its COVID-19 guidance for local health jurisdictions on the isolation and quarantine of the general public. The latest guidance updates remove quarantine recommendations for asymptomatic exposed persons, add recommendations for work exclusion or restriction in certain specified high-risk settings, and include an updated definition for…
Read More »The California Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board (OSHSB) this week published a notice of its proposed readoption of the COVID-19 emergency temporary standard (ETS). The current ETS was adopted by OSHSB on December 16, 2021, and became effective on January 14, 2022. The emergency filing of regulations…
Read More »The California Department of Public Health (CDPH) late last week issued the Safe and SMART Events Playbook to support event operators produce events that are safe from COVID-19 transmission. The Playbook is based on the California SMARTER Plan and seeks to provide best practices and resources to be used for any type of event. The…
Read More »Consistent with the California SMARTER Plan, the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) recently announced it has notified PerkinElmer of its intent to terminate its contract for COVID-19 PCR test processing through the Valencia Branch Laboratory (VBL). Effective May 15, 2022, CDPH will transition from a centralized COVID-19 test processing model at VBL to a…
Read More »This week, the California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) announced it is launching a statewide effort to help Medi-Cal beneficiaries maintain their Medi-Cal coverage or be enrolled in other coverage. During the national public health emergency (PHE) in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, annual reevaluation of ongoing eligibility was temporarily halted to ensure vulnerable…
Read More »This week, the California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) submitted to the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) an application to amend the California Advancing and Innovating Medi-Cal (CalAIM) Section 1115 demonstration to increase and eventually eliminate asset limits for certain low-income individuals whose eligibility is not determined using the modified adjusted…
Read More »On Wednesday, the California Department of Industrial Relations (DIR) Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) reminded all employers statewide to protect outdoor workers from heat illness. The reminder comes as the National Weather Service has issued heat advisories throughout the state. According to Cal/OSHA, employers must take steps to protect workers from heat illness…
Read More »This week, the Public Health Alliance of Southern California (Alliance) launched the Healthy Places Index (HPI) 3.0, representing a new, more robust tool designed to advance health equity and racial justice at the neighborhood and community levels. HPI 3.0 features updated data and new tools to support the ability to compare data across geographies and…
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