December 23, 2016 Edition

Season’s Greetings

Happy holidays from CHEAC!

We hope that you have a wonderful holiday season and look forward to an exciting year serving the needs of local health departments and improving the health of our communities.

The CHEAC office will close at 2 pm today and will reopen on Tuesday, December 27.

Legislative Update

California State Senate Leader, Kevin De León announced his committee assignments for the upcoming legislative session.  Key changes include the appointment of Senator Holly Mitchell (D-30) as chair of the Senate Budget and Fiscal Committee and Senator Richard Pan (D-6) as the chair of Senate Budget Subcommittee #3 on Health and Human Services.  Senator Ed Hernandez (D-22) remains as the chair of the Senate Health Committee.  New members to the Senate Health Committee are:  Senator Toni Atkins (D-39), Senator Connie Leyva (D-20), and Senator Josh Newman (D-29).

Brief of California’s Projected Economic Losses under ACA Repeal

UC Berkeley Labor Center released a brief  that estimates the effects on employment, gross domestic product (GDP), and state and local tax revenue in California with the elimination of the major health insurance expansions, reduction in taxes, and removal of penalties under a partial repeal of the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

The summary estimates that an ACA repeal would not only take away health insurance from millions of Californians, but would also eliminate 209,000 jobs and $20.3 billion in GDP from the state economy.  Key findings include:

  • The impact would be felt the most in counties with high Medi-Cal enrollment. Of the seven medium to large counties in which more than 10% of the population relies on the Medi-Cal expansion, six are already suffering from high unemployment.
  • Each of these high-impact counties is estimated to lose thousands of jobs on net: Fresno (6,000), Kern (5,000), San Bernardino (12,000), San Joaquin (4,000), Stanislaus (3,000), and Tulare (3,000). Los Angeles County is expected to lose 63,000 jobs.
  • ACA repeal would especially harm workers in the healthcare industry, which is estimated to lose 135,000 of the 209,000 eliminated jobs.

Medi-Cal County Inmate Program Effective Date Changed

The Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) issued a Medi-Cal NewsFlash yesterday updating providers on when they can submit claims directly to DHCS for the Medi-Cal County Inmate Program (MCIP).  In a previous NewsFlash  published on October 11, 2016, DHCS informed providers that they may submit claims directly to DHCS for MCIP for dates of service on or after October 24, 2016, once the county responsible for the inmate signed a MCIP agreement.  However, DHCS has now informed providers that these agreements will not be effective until April 1, 2017, at the earliest.

MCIP implementing documents can be found on the CHEAC website.

If you would like to receive updates from DHCS related to MCIP, please send a request to: dhcsimcu@dhcs.ca.gov.