California Health

Some prominent health insurers, including industry giant UnitedHealth Group Inc., are not participating in California's new state-run health insurance market, possibly limiting the number of choices for millions of consumers. UnitedHealth, the nation's largest private insurer, Aetna Inc. and Cigna Corp. are sitting out the first year of Covered California, the state's insurance exchange and a key testing ground nationally for a massive coverage expansion under the federal healthcare law. Meanwhile, the biggest insurers in the state - Kaiser Permanente, Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield of California - are all expected to participate in the state-run market for individual health coverage.

Amid anxiety over rising costs from the federal healthcare law, California received better-than-expected insurance rates for a new state-run marketplace, but many consumers still won't be spared from sharply higher premiums. Three years after President Obama's landmark law was passed, the state unveiled the first details Thursday on what many Californians can expect to pay for coverage from 13 health plans offering policies in the state's exchange, in which as many as 5 million people will shop for coverage next year.

For the sixth consecutive year, Kaiser Permanente ranked highest in customer satisfaction for health insurance among California policyholders, according to ratings firm J.D. Power and Associates. Anthem Blue Cross, the state's largest for-profit health insurer, and Woodland Hills insurer Health Net Inc. scored the lowest on customer satisfaction among seven California health plans. Kaiser, the nation's largest nonprofit health plan and hospital system, also led the way in customer satisfaction in Colorado, the Mid-Atlantic states and the South Atlantic area.

Covered California, the state's health insurance exchange, announced $37 million in grants Tuesday to begin the massive task of educating millions of Californians about the new healthcare law. The grants will go to 48 organizations, including universities, nonprofit groups, health foundations and unions. They will help state officials explain the new benefits, show people how to access insurance, and encourage small businesses to enroll. Covered California's executive director, Peter Lee, said Tuesday that getting the word out will require collaboration and partnership across the state.

It was late in the afternoon when Ellen Severoni, executive director of California Health Decisions--Orange County Project, surveyed the room full of delegates at the project's first Health Care Parliament. Severoni was pleased. "What people are telling me, overwhelmingly, is they're happy to be here, they feel they have had input and that it (the project) is important," said Severoni, a registered nurse, who helped launch the project.

Confirming earlier studies, the first statewide survey of radon in California has found that the radioactive gas--believed to be the second-most frequent cause of lung cancer in the United States--is present only in low levels in most California homes. Based on a yearlong sampling of 385 dwellings statewide, an estimated 88,000 single-family houses in California--about 1% of them--may contain radon beyond the recommended maximum.

A UC San Diego graduate student who worked and lived in a nature reserve here may have died as a result of a mystery flu-like illness suspected of killing 29 people in the Four Corners area of the desert Southwest, authorities said Saturday. State and federal medical experts began arriving Saturday in Mammoth Lakes in the Eastern Sierra to investigate whether Jeanne Messier, 27, was the first California case of the deadly disease. The U.S.

A four-year measles epidemic that has preyed mostly on unvaccinated inner-city children, killing scores of youngsters across the country, has ebbed sharply in California and in most other states, health officials said Wednesday. Though they warned that it is too soon to declare the epidemic in full control, health officials were encouraged by a sharp drop in measles cases--especially in California, the hot spot for the disease a year ago.

Nearly half of Californians say more money should be devoted to the health of their community, and a third want more spent on prevention of disease and disability, according to a new survey of residents' attitudes about health care. The concern about the community is especially notable because almost one in three state residents doesn't have a personal physician, said Karen Bodenhorn, lead author of a report based on the survey.

Two nurses examined an earthquake victim writhing in pain inside a yellow triage tent recently on the lawn of Redlands Community Hospital. They suspected the woman had head trauma, a broken leg and internal bleeding as part of a disaster drill that morning for a magnitude 7.9 earthquake. The 229-bed facility was running on two generators after losing power, and the nurses needed to get her inside the hospital and into intensive care. Trouble was the hospital gurneys were too heavy for the damp grass and they couldn't roll them to the triage tent.

Making immigrants ineligible for public health benefits -- at least initially -- under proposed immigration law changes would push the costs of healthcare from the federal government to states and counties, said Sonal Ambegaokar, a health policy attorney at the National Immigration Law Center. And those costs could be sizable in a state like California, where there are an estimated 2.5 million illegal immigrants. “It is the federal government telling the states they have to take care of these immigrants,” she said.

For the sixth consecutive year, Kaiser Permanente ranked highest in customer satisfaction for health insurance among California policyholders, according to ratings firm J.D. Power and Associates. Anthem Blue Cross, the state's largest for-profit health insurer, and Woodland Hills insurer Health Net Inc. scored the lowest on customer satisfaction among seven California health plans. Kaiser, the nation's largest nonprofit health plan and hospital system, also led the way in customer satisfaction in Colorado, the Mid-Atlantic states and the South Atlantic area.

Two nurses examined an earthquake victim writhing in pain inside a yellow triage tent recently on the lawn of Redlands Community Hospital. They suspected the woman had head trauma, a broken leg and internal bleeding as part of a disaster drill that morning for a magnitude 7.9 earthquake. The 229-bed facility was running on two generators after losing power, and the nurses needed to get her inside the hospital and into intensive care. Trouble was the hospital gurneys were too heavy for the damp grass and they couldn't roll them to the triage tent.

Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law last week a set of measures aimed at preparing California for coming changes in how consumers get healthcare insurance. Some of the laws: • To head off deceptive marketing attempts, AB 1761 bans unauthorized individuals and businesses from claiming to represent the California Health Benefit Exchange, the new central marketplace for buying insurance that goes into effect in 2014. • Beginning in 2014, under AB 792, Californians who lose their health insurance because of job loss, divorce or legal separation will receive information about reduced-cost plans available through the health exchange and no-cost coverage from Medi-Cal.

Want to buy health insurance from an avocado? California thinks you might. Officials at the California Health Benefit Exchange, knowing their new online marketplace for medical insurance is a mouthful, are considering some new brand names to generate buzz with millions of consumers. "Avocado: A uniquely California approach to affordable healthcare" was one possibility presented at a board meeting Thursday. Other names tossed around were CaliHealth, Wellquest, Health Hub, Eureka and Condor.

Nothing irks Dr. Bichlien Nguyen more than the herbal supplement ads that fill the airwaves of Vietnamese television and radio. "You'll have bottle No. 1 that will treat your kidney disease, and bottle No. 2 can treat anything from cancer to high blood pressure to diabetes," said Nguyen, an oncologist in Fountain Valley. "It's a mess, it's really bad. " Herbal products and dietary supplements do not receive the same testing and regulatory scrutiny that the Food and Drug Administration applies to drugs.

Nearly two dozen hospitals in California closed in the last half of the 1990s--almost half in Los Angeles County--largely because of financial pressures, according to a study released Wednesday. The closures were attributed to an unforgiving health care climate: a nursing shortage, low payments from health care plans, Medicare funding cuts, too many uninsured patients and financial losses from earthquake retrofitting, according to the study.

In the rapidly changing world of managed care, one thing seems to remain the same--patient complaints. California Health Decisions, an Orange-based nonprofit organization, recently surveyed 100 members of California health plans and 100 physicians. One-third of the participants said they had encountered problems getting health-plan approvals or referrals to medical specialists or certain treatments. Many complained of having to wait too long for approvals.

California's new insurance exchange is seeking about $190 million in additional federal money as it prepares to help millions of consumers shop for health insurance. Peter Lee, executive director of the California Health Benefit Exchange, said the funding request was sent this week, before the Supreme Court decision upholding the federal healthcare program. The exchange plans to use the money to help build an enrollment system for millions of Californians who can start signing up for policies in October 2013.