Kaiser Permanente Could Be Fined Over Mental Health Access
A routine survey by the state of California has found that Kaiser Permanente is failing to provide members with timely access to mental health care, according to California Healthline. The state requires patients with an urgent problem have access within 48 hours and patients with nonurgent issues within 10 business days. This is not the first time Kaiser has been cited for inadequate access to mental health care—in 2013 it paid a $4 million fine and in 2015 the state still found patients were waiting weeks or even months for an appointment.
Fifth GOP Senator Opposes Health Bill
Senator Dean Heller (R-Arizona) has become the fifth Republican senator to publicly oppose the Senate’s health bill, which was released on Thursday. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) now has just a few days to negotiate with the 5 senators to ensure at least 3 vote for the bill if he wants to pass the bill before the July 4 recess, reported The Washington Post. Heller faces a difficult reelection in 2018 and his state’s governor is a staunch supporter of Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act. Meanwhile, Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine) has not taken a formal stance on how she will vote, but has said she has reservations and is concerned about the deep cuts to Medicaid.
California’s Single-Payer Bill Gets Shelved
A single-payer bill that passed the California Senate is unlikely to come to the floor for a vote in the state Assembly. The New York Times reported that the leader of the state Assembly said the bill is “woefully incomplete.” The bill currently doesn’t outline a way to pay for a government-run health system in California, but it has an estimated price tag of $400 billion per year. The single-payer bill would guarantee healthcare for California residents and eliminate out-of-pocket costs. Although the bill will not come to the floor for a vote, the state Assembly leader doesn’t think it is dead—he encouraged the Senate to draft a new version.
New Research Challenges Assumptions About Hospital-Physician Integration, Medicare Patient Mix
April 22nd 2025On this episode of Managed Care Cast, Brady Post, PhD, lead author of a study published in the April 2025 issue of The American Journal of Managed Care®, challenges the claim that hospital-employed physicians serve a more complex patient mix.
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Personalized Care Key as Tirzepatide Use Expands Rapidly
April 15th 2025Using commercial insurance claims data and the US launch of tirzepatide as their dividing point, John Ostrominski, MD, Harvard Medical School, and his team studied trends in the use of both glucose-lowering and weight-lowering medications, comparing outcomes between adults with and without type 2 diabetes.
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Integrated CKD Care Model Cuts ED Visits by 30%, Boosts Specialized Treatment
April 21st 2025An analysis of an interdisciplinary care model for managing chronic kidney disease (CKD) shows hospital admissions dropped by 26% and emergency department (ED) visits decreased by 30% after clinic initiation.
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