SACRAMENTO — California lawmakers acted to curb some of the most extreme practices of the state's healthcare industry this session, even as they failed to fix some of its most widespread problems, such as high costs and uneven quality.
The Legislature's two-year session resulted in incremental tinkering with California's healthcare system instead of the wholesale restructuring that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger dedicated himself to shortly after his 2006 reelection.
After the Senate rejected the governor's $14.9-billion plan in January, healthcare advocates hoped that piecemeal improvements that didn't tax the state's treasury could be enacted. But aggressive lobbying by insurers and doctors and internal feuds among Democrats killed most of the proposals in the final weeks of the session, which ended Sunday without a budget in place.
"We're going to need to make healthcare a big priority next year, because we obviously didn't come close to completing the work," said Senate President Pro Tem-elect Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento).
The Legislature's major healthcare accomplishments involved several high-profile, though relatively uncommon, practices that afflict consumers and patients. Lawmakers agreed to stop insurers from retroactively canceling policies of sick customers except in cases in which the companies could prove their customers intentionally misled them when first applying for coverage.
Legislators decided to clamp down on hospitals that bill patients above what their insurance covers for emergency room and follow-up care. The practice, called balance billing, leaves consumers making up the difference when there are payment disputes among hospitals, doctors and insurers.
The Legislature also voted to create a new office to protect patient privacy in response to breaches at UCLA Medical Center, where more than 120 employees inappropriately viewed the medical records of prominent patients including actress Farrah Fawcett, singer Britney Spears and California First Lady Maria Shriver. Repeated privacy breaches at hospitals, nursing homes and doctors' offices could lead to fines as high as $250,000.
Legislators agreed to order hospitals to be much more vigilant about infectious diseases that can spread from patient to patient.
Hospitals would have to reveal their rates of antibiotic-resistant infections, which are an increasing health threat. One of the most virulent strains, methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, sickens or kills thousands of people a year.
